Relic Hunter Ramifications
by Caleb Jones
Summary: An ancient Idol listens to their inner thoughts and suddenly Sidney and Nigel have switched lives. Now Nigel is Sydney and Vice Versa! Hopefully the answer lies over in England with Nigel's inheritance of the family fortune? COMPLETE!
1. The Beginning of the Strangest Adventure...

A Relic Hunter- serial.  
  
Ramifications  
  
Written by Caleb Jones and Eric.  
  
(We do not own the copyright - we are just playing with the characters)  
  
Prelude to a Wish  
  
Sydney, with her usual impatience with customary precautions dragged her assistant Nigel forward into the flames. Nigel managed to keep the flames down by hitting them with his jacket. With his free hand, he helped Sydney pull an old chest out of the burning ruins.  
  
"Sydney, it's bloody hot! Hell it's on fire!" Nigel said as he dropped the chest on the floor. "And so am I!" He beat at the flames that were beginning to set his shirt on fire. "Ouch! Ouch!"  
  
"I swear, Nigel, you are such a baby sometimes! She splashed his burning chest and the antique chest with water from her Avian bottle. The flames died off and Nigel took a deep breath and calmed down. "Carry the burning chest and I'll take the rest of stolen artifacts! This building is ready to go up in flames and I want to be out of here when it does!" The tall, exotically beautiful Professor Fox ordered her singed assistant to follow her out..  
  
Nigel groaned. 'She who must be obeyed...' was at it again. He did as he was told, as usual. Sydney scooped up the rest and they ran for the safety of the catacombs! Flames almost overwhelmed them as they rushed out. 'Just once, I wish I were the boss!' Nigel thought, as the retracted door to the hidden chamber room dropped once more behind them.  
  
In the relative safety of the catacombs, the smell of burning wood lessened and they took a break to open the still smoking chest by torchlight. The long lost prize was really theirs! At last, the ancient Egyptian Idol of Ram would return to the modern world.  
  
"We did it Nigel!" Sydney smothered an urge to kiss her assistant. They were both professionals, after all.  
  
He nodded, tired and singed around the edges, but triumphant.  
  
Neither Nigel nor Sydney had much to say. Their journey back to the University was long and contemplative.  
  
  
  
As usual, the international media wanted to interview Sydney about her latest accomplishment. She was an ideal source for the news media. Sydney Fox was one of the most beautiful, sexy women on the planet. She looked like an exotic goddess, part Chinese, part Hawaiian, and part Caucasian, and the mixture was greater than the sum of its parts. She could well have been movie star gorgeous, and the camera loved her. Of course so did the men, her trail of broken hearts was longer than the list of the antique relics she found or recovered.  
  
The press conference began and the slightly shorter, diffident Englishman Nigel Bailey held the figurine higher for the photographers and TV cameras and grumbled to himself. Sydney's teaching assistant always pulled his weight with their relic hunting efforts, but Sydney, of course, got all the glory. Unlike himself, Sydney was not only head of the department, but nearly world famous and the sexy, brainy combination made for terrific copy. He was lucky if his name was mentioned in the same articles with hers. And when he was mentioned, his name was usually misspelled. Gloomily, in a rare fit of depression, he was amazed that even his parents remembered his name! "For once, I'd like to change places with Sydney and get to be the world famous, glamorous archeologist and the center of the spotlight while Sydney takes a backseat to me!"  
  
Sydney hated the press. She felt that with a few exceptions, most reporters were liars who would sell their mothers into prostitution for the story, or change the truth to suit their interpretation of events! It didn't help much that they were so pushy and often interfered with her work. It was a major chore just to be patient with them, but it was part of the job.  
  
"Please Professor Fox, could you both hold up the idol with your assistant! It will make a great shot!"  
  
Sydney forced a smile on her lips. 'Just once,' she idly wished, 'I'd love to swap places with Nigel and be the assistant and let Nigel deal with these obnoxious reporters'. She touched the ancient relic as they both held it high for the photographers  
  
All the cameras flashed at once as the Idol known as Mr. Ram granted them their idle wishes!  
  
  
  
(Note: Mr. Ram is a magical statue in the novel Turnabout by Thorne Smith.) 


	2. The Discovery

Chapter 2  
  
Co-written by Eric, and Caleb Jones  
  
A wave of dizziness momentary swept over both Sydney and Nigel.  
  
Nigel recovered first. He felt very strange. He seemed to be standing, almost tottering - like he was on stilts or something. The world appeared subtly different. His vision seemed clearer, but his glasses were gone! Suddenly, during that same moment, he became aware of a strange feeling of constriction wrapped around his chest as if an unfamiliar part of his body were being lifted up. Nigel could have sworn he was holding the statue in his right hand, not left hand!  
  
It was also rather strange how the reporters were all staring at him now, not the world famous and beautiful Sydney Fox - and they were staring with admiration - except for the lone female reporter. She seemed to dislike him. This surprised Nigel, as most females wanted to mother him. It drove him crazy to be short and immature. He wanted to be glamorous and sexy with an authoritative air like Sydney, in a masculine way, of course! Instead, he looked like everyone's kid brother!  
  
"Professor Fox, would you mind telling us of your adventures rediscovering this famous lost artifact?" asked a TV reporter shoving a mike into HIS face. He looked to Sydney but she was no longer there! He looked in the opposite direction for her and instead, he saw his own face staring horrified back at him. 'Bloody hell!' he thought. The rumors of Ram's magic powers were not fantasies! Faced with unquestionable evidence, i.e. his own face no longer on his head, Nigel knew without a doubt he was now residing inside Sydney's sexy body. His idle wish had come true. Now he was the world famous professor Sydney Fox and she was the assistant professor, the short, shy Nigel!  
  
"Is anything wrong, Professor?" asked the man.  
  
Nigel nervously grinned, a bit light headed from the shock. "Not at all." he said smoothly. "The flash bulbs momentarily dazzled me," he said as Sydney's liquid voice rang in his ears. He might be her assistant while teaching but during their adventures, he was her partner. Granted, not an equal one, but he knew all the facts as well as Sydney did, and at least for now, he was speaking for her!  
  
"It started when I received a call from an old friend, a Professor Sadat who said he thought the missing relic was hidden in the stolen collections of the infamous international criminal called the Raven. We flew to Cairo. Poor Nigel here was airsick as usual."  
  
Sydney looked at him with opened mouth indignity. Nigel was the one who had been airsick, not her.  
  
"Using my connections, we learned the Raven was making a buy in the infamous Kasbah district. We adopted disguises and tracked down the Raven's current location. I was able to put a homing devise on his person and then allowed him to escape. That way we could follow him to his lair. Much to our surprise, it turned out to be a secret catacomb inside the great pyramid itself. His guards jumped us and hit poor Nigel on the head. Look you can see the bump!"  
  
With his beautiful, slim hand, Nigel touched his former head and pushed his cowlick aside to show a sizeable bruise.  
  
"As you may be aware, I am an expert in Kung Fu and other marshal arts and as the guards did not expect those in a female, I was able to overcome the three guards. Nigel and I tied them up. Then we had to negotiate a rope bridge over a pit of vipers. Poor Nigel here almost fell in the pit, but I managed to pull him to safety. Next, we avoided a trip stone trap that would have screwed us too a wall with spears."  
  
"We reached an apparent dead end. But, with Nigel's expert help I was able to decipher the cryptic hieroglyphics, and we opened the secret door for the first time in millennia. We came across a ruined temple of the dark god Anubas beneath the pyramids, where it had lain hidden for countless centuries before the Raven made it his vile lair. Raven was lying in wait for us. After a scuffle, the trapped archfiend first tried to bribe us, then reached for his gun, but my crossbow bolt beat him to it, catching him in the chest and he dropped his Luger. 'You will never take what is mine from me!' the mad criminal cried out." Nigel paused to take a deep breath, amazed to see the eyes of the male reporters glance down to watch his curvaceous chest rise as his lungs filled with air. He was ready to continue.  
  
The reporters were enthralled by 'Sydney's' hypnotic voice. They could almost see the scenes, see the desperate struggles in the dark and dank tunnels, the cobwebs, the withering and hissing snakes, the underground temple hidden for at least 4,000 years, and of course, the mad thief Raven clutching the arrow in his chest with blood oozing from his cruel mouth.  
  
"The criminal recovered enough strength to push a disguised panel on the wall which set off a roaring inferno. Overcoming his natural reluctance and fear of fire, Nigel proved yet again to be a great help to me. We dashed into the flames and recovered many priceless relics. One chest however was unreachable in a corner. Thinking quickly, I threw a rug over the flames. This allowed us to sprint to the burning chest and pull it to safety. This was the prize of the Raven's collection, the chest that contained the statue of Ram which you see now."  
  
The reporters burst into spontaneous applause. Nigel in Sydney's body expanded like a flower in the sun. He directed an ironical glance at Sydney. Did he - Nigel- always look so simple? Sydney was still staring at him with slack jawed disbelief.  
  
"What kind of ancient god was Ram supposed to be?" asked the reporter from the Boston Globe.  
  
"He was the god of mischief - the trickster. Legend has it he would sometimes grant wishes that people didn't really mean and see how they did with them. The last known possessors of the statue were a married couple named Tim and Sally Willows in the 1930's. It was stolen from them on an ocean voyage across the Atlantic. Since then, there have only been rumors of it being seen here and there. The most recent sighting was in 1979, until the Raven appropriated it."  
  
"Thank you, Professor Fox!" said the museum's manager, stepping in to take the statue from Nigel. "As usual, I'm sure that the world is in your debt - oh, you too - Nigel, isn't it?" The manager never took his gaze away from Nigel's beautiful body as he placed the statue in a security case and turned on the alarm.  
  
No one would get their hands on it again, not even the Raven! 


	3. The Research

Ramifications 3  
  
Nigel and Sydney looked at each other with the other's eyes. Panic set in! They were about to loose the only way to get their proper bodies back! They got in each other's way trying to retrieve the statue from the museum curator.  
  
"I need the statue for some more study!" said Nigel desperately, unaware that his new cleavage was giving a good show to the photographers as he strained to retrieve the magical idol.  
  
"I need it too!" shouted Sydney. She was upset that Nigel was occupying her beautiful, sweet body and desperately wanted it back! Her new male brain insisted on adding a British accent no matter what words she chose, much to her annoyance.  
  
The man ignored Nigel (as usual). "Sydney, Sydney... You had your chance to study the idol. You told me three days ago you were quite finished with it, remember. I have people waiting in line to see it exhibited!" He placed it in a display case and locked the statue in for exhibition.  
  
The reporters stared at the Statue of Ram in its ultra high security glass case while photographers clicked away.  
  
The curator spoke proudly. "Ladies and gentlemen of the press, welcome! The Ram idol is now safe in its new and permanent home. It's quite secure here in the Boston Museum of Art. Even the skills of the late thief Raven himself would be helpless against this security."  
  
Again, Sydney and Nigel exchange rueful glances at their rightful bodies!   
  
"Here we go again," muttered Nigel under his or rather Sydney's breath. He started to leave, beckoning Syd to follow him. He staggered a bit on the unfamiliar high heels his feet were now clad in. "Bloody hell!" he said, very unladylike. He brushed long hair out of his face but it kept falling back again. "How do you walk in these things, Sydney?"  
  
Sydney couldn't help but grin. She didn't answer him. Now Nigel had to wear those instruments of feminine torture. Somehow, he made it across campus in his high heels without breaking an ankle. However, he drew stares along the way from students wondering if the sexy and famous Professor Fox had tied one on! By the time they reached their office, Nigel had allowed his body to handle walking reflexively and he was walking in heels like he was the real Sydney with all her panther-like grace.   
  
Several times, they gave black looks of desperation at the bodies they had lost. They tried to discuss the confusing situation along the way back to their department offices, but every time they tried to talk about the body swap someone would come up and congratulate Sydney. Nigel was able to handle the well wishers but they had to wait until they got to her office for the privacy to blame each other for the fix they were in.  
  
Their well-endowed blond secretary Karen Petruski noted something strange about her superiors and asked, "I hope nothing went wrong at the press conference? You two look like grim death warmed over."  
  
Nigel made a grimace with Sydney's lovely face. He almost said 'Bloody hell', but caught himself in time. Syd never said bloody anything - only him. 'What would she say?'  
  
"We are just peachy keen, Karen! Come on 'Nigel', we need to talk. Karen, no calls please - we are not to be disturbed!"   
  
Nigel was glad to see that now Karen had more respect for him, and it was great to be the one able to give the orders in the office as well!  
  
Karen saw Nigel slam the door behind them. 'Poor Nigel must be trouble again', she thought. "I'm glad I don't have Professor Fox furious at me. She can be one tough bitch sometimes!  
  
As soon as the door closed behind Sydney, they both said "It's all your fault!" at the same time.  
  
They glared at each other and the bodies they had lost.   
  
"Never mind that!" snapped Sydney. "What are we going to do? I sure don't want to spend the rest of my life in your miserable little British body! I'm a woman, dammit, not a man! I want my beautiful body back!"  
  
Nigel put his lovely hands on his sexy hips where they jutted out from his body and pouted. "What's wrong with my body, I'd like to know?"  
  
Sydney checked off the problems on Nigel fingers. "One, you're shorter than I am, two, you have as much charisma and grace as a sack of wet mice, and three, you have flat feet AND have trouble getting laid! I don't want to deal with any of that!"  
  
Nigel was mad. He saw how he might get a measure of revenge. "Thanks for the recital of my faults" he said icily. "It makes me glad YOU rather than I have them now, and reconciles me a little better to my new body and life as the beautiful, famous Professor Sydney Fox who can get laid any damn time she wants!"  
  
Syd went pale in Nigel's body, looking up at what had been her own face now set in determination. 'What if he was serious?' She was in deep quicksand here and struggled to dig herself out before Nigel realized her body was far superior to his and decided to keep it!  
  
"Sorry Nigel, we are both understandably upset. You did just fine acting as me during the interview - much better than I would have, had they asked me anything. I'm just confused - how are we going to get the statue back and wish ourselves back into our true bodies?"  
  
Nigel felt good with the praise. "Well, you could go to the University president and ask to study the idol. He's putty in your hands, Sydney. He'll persuade that pompous Museum director for us."  
  
"But I can't stand the creep - he'll be groping me the whole time." Then she grinned. "No, he'll be feeling YOU UP! It's just one of the 'benefits' of being a woman. Now you will have to handle the creep while getting him to do what we want him to do!" she added, with immense satisfaction!  
  
Nigel's emotions turned Sydney's face a little green. "Oh, no! Not that cretin! I have to smile and play up to him?"  
  
"See, it's not always so easy being me!"  
  
"No, but I am now head of the department - so you better get better going with all the paperwork we've missed in the last two weeks on adventure in Egypt!" He was glad to see Sydney looked horrified. "You have about a thousand papers to grade."  
  
"But I hate paper work!"  
  
"So do I! But now that you are MY assistant - you've got to do it!"  
  
Sydney glared as best she could with the unfamiliar muscles of Nigel's face. "You'd better call upon your elderly lecher, 'SYDNEY', and get that idol back here A.S.A.P.!"  
  
Nigel took a deep breath and Sydney, to her surprise, watched her former tits rise with fascination. Seeing them on Nigel somehow made them more attractive to her. They were no longer simply a part of her body. She was aware that her body was beautiful, but seeing someone else inside that body somehow gave new meaning to the often heard comments about her beauty.   
  
Unconsciously and perhaps reflexively, Nigel found himself copying Syd's mannerisms as he stretched out his new nylon-clad legs on top of the desk, admiring his new, world-class curves. The short skirt he was wearing showed a lot of leg and the high heels just made his long legs even longer! He suddenly felt rather feminine.  
  
"Karen, get me the Chancellor's office!" he said into the intercom in his best impression of Sydney's commanding tones. Soon he had the old fart's secretary on the telephone. The older woman was brusque while talking to Nigel. Her attitude served to remind Nigel that the woman did dislike him, or rather Sydney of course, since he looked and sounded like her now. She liked Nigel.  
  
"I'm sorry, Professor Fox." she said, not sounding at all sorry. "The Chancellor is on retreat and will not be back for two weeks."  
  
"Two weeks?" Nigel said, exploding out of Sydney's leather chair.   
  
"Two weeks!" echoed Sydney, who had been listening in. "What do we do now?"   
  
"I wish I knew, Nigel!"  
  
"Quiet! Don't make any more idle wishes! Who knows what will happen to us this time?   
  
They both pondered their next course of action. It looked like they would be stuck as each other for weeks! 


	4. Entering Their New Digs!

TWO WEEKS . . .?  
  
They both groaned. Could they really be each other, live each other's lives for two whole weeks?  
  
"You better not mess up my life, Nigel!" said Sydney as threatening as she could in Nigel's self-effacing body. "I want it back exactly the way it was when I got stuck with your body once we finally convince that Ram statue to switch us back to normal!  
  
"That goes double for me, Sydney! Don't do anything that could ruin my life for me!"  
  
"What life would you have if I didn't drag you around the globe with me hunting relics?" Sydney snarled. She wasn't really that angry with Nigel, she was mostly mad that she was no longer in her beautiful own body. Her beauty was the one thing in her life she took for granted and now it had been ripped from her and given to Nigel! On second thought, she WAS a little bit angry with Nigel even if it wasn't his fault they had exchanged bodies and lives. Who else could she blame?  
  
Nigel flushed after hearing Sydney put down his life, and the rush of blood to his face just served to make his new body look as pretty as a picture. He felt an unfamiliar urge to cry at the insult instead of taking it like a man. But despite his body, he was a man and he didn't cry.  
  
"Sorry, Nigel, I didn't mean to upset you. I'm just mad at the situation, and I shouldn't take it all out on you. Look, arguing like this is getting us nowhere. We have to carry on. I will live in your place and do your job for the next two weeks and you will have to be me to the world as well. You'll have to teach my classes, and move into my house."  
  
A sudden thought occurred to Sydney. "Hey, I just realized I get a two week vacation from having to deliver boring lectures to sex crazed students. Since I am now you, and the assistant, I can do all the research now instead of lectures! And no guy is going to look at me twice now… except for Kramer in the fourth row, of course. He can't seem to take his eyes off you, Nigel. But you don't have to worry, he wasn't my type before, and he certainly isn't now. I guess we should fill in each other on what to expect when we go home tonight. I don't recall ever visiting where you live, and you have only been to my house a couple of times. I'll need directions for starters."  
  
Nigel brightened a little. It would be nice to live in Sydney's great house. It sure would beat his cramped bachelor studio apartment. Maybe Syd would even do his dirty laundry piled up in the corner! She better, if she wanted clean clothes to wear!  
  
"I guess you are right, as always, Sydney. It'll be easier to show you the way though. We can leave after the final class is over."  
  
Their secretary stuck her head in. Karen was surprised to see Nigel sitting behind Sydney's desk, but she was very professional and delivered her message.  
  
"Professor Fox, the head of the Berlin Museum is on the phone. He says it's important."  
  
Sydney started to speak and Nigel coughed loudly to interrupt her. Nigel had to grin. This might be fun after all. "Thank you, Karen. Oh Nigel, hadn't you better get started on the paper work from our last relic hunt?"  
  
Sydney glared at Nigel! It wasn't fair. Now he was beautiful and the boss! And to top it all off, she HATED paperwork!  
  
"Yes, Sydney. Of course.'" she said resignedly. As she left, she could hear Nigel chat on the phone with her sultry former voice.  
  
"What can I do for you, Professor Hammerslogger…?"  
  
'I'll get Nigel for this one day…' muttered Sydney to herself while she went through miles and miles of forms, not to mention the boring task of grading papers. It was ready weird. Karen was teasing her and it almost seemed as if she were flirting with her. Sydney had never realized before just how attractive a woman her secretary was until her sudden interest! She tried to remember that Karen was interested in Nigel Bailey, not her! But she WAS Nigel now, and his body was expressing an interest in Karen as well. Being a man was going to be more difficult than she had anticipated . . .  
  
Nigel hurried to lecture Sydney's class on the "Fall of Empires through the Ages." Now that he was thinking about other things, he allowed his new body to walk the way it wanted to walk. His feminine gait was a welcome sight to the university's male members. Not understanding that the catcalls and whistles were directed at his curvaceous figure, Nigel continued to make his way across the small park in the center of the University.  
  
"That Professor Fox is such a FOX!" proclaimed one undergraduate to his equally lecherous friend and frat brother.  
  
"Amen to that, bro! How would you like to 'explore' her? I know I would like to hunt for her secret treasures! "  
  
Meanwhile the original Sydney leaned back in Nigel's flimsy chair. Not being accustomed to possessing greater weight, nor knowing that his cheap chair was far less stable than her leather one, Sydney leaned too far backwards and went crashing to the ground.  
  
"Nigel, you are such a klutz! " said Karen. Of course, Nigel wouldn't be Nigel if he didn't do something klutzy at least once a day, she thought.  
  
Sydney flushed, angry and embarrassed, and rubbed her tender and slim rear end. It was sore after the fall. Again, she regretted the body exchange. A simple fall on her rear never used to bother her before. Her true rear end was well padded compared to Nigel's bony rear…  
  
  
  
Nigel gulped. There were hundreds of students waiting for him to speak. Speaking in public had never been one of his better skills. It was one of the reasons he was still an assistant professor. Nigel cleared Sydney's throat nervously, still amazed at how high-toned his voice had become. He glanced down at Sydney' notes then back at 200 students in the amphitheater. The men had their eyes on his breasts and the girls were studying her dress and make up. But, to Nigel, everyone seemed to be watching him! Did they realize he was an imposter in Sydney's clothing? There was no escape. He had no choice but to bluff his way through the lecture. He knew as much if not more about the fall of empires as Syd did anyway! He took a deep breath. Many of the male students and a few of the female students enjoyed the sight as his bosoms rose even higher and strained against his brassiere.  
  
"The Syrian Empire collapsed because, while the citizen soldiers were off fighting their countries enemies, the priests were stealing their land and food, leaving the families destitute. The ruling priests were then astounded to find out the returning solders wouldn't go back to the enemy and fight for their country any longer. The Empire's enemies were legion, their rulers not having the knack for governing without an ocean of blood, and they descended on Ninevah . . ."  
  
As he talked, Nigel forgot his nervousness. Sydney's marvelous voice was mesmerizing him as well as the class.  
  
Finally, an uncomfortable day ended. He drove her Jaguar to Sydney's house. He grinned enchantingly at her face in the mirror. How Sydney had howled when they got to the parking lot. They had made lists of what to expect and do when each got to their home, but she hadn't realized she had to drive his seven-year-old, barely functional Honda civic! It was all he could afford on an assistant professor's salary, he explained. It was great to gun the powerful car through terrific. It reminded him of his lost manhood somehow. Even the powerful vibrations of the engine felt good! Soon, he arrived at his destination, his new home for two weeks.  
  
Sydney's house was magnificent, with treasures and paintings everywhere!  
  
It was a bit too feminine for his tastes, but he supposed it went with his current body quite well. He decided to make the best of it. It was a far finer home than his apartment had been! Nigel spent the next few hours of his new life inhabiting Sydney's foxy body at her home by trying to figure out where she kept everything. If he had to be Sydney for weeks, he would have to really become her, and that meant wearing her clothes, driving her car, and living in her home.  
  
He had listened to male students commenting on his "foxy" body behind his back all day long. Their constant interest in his new bosoms might be considered a compliment to the real Sydney, but they were an annoyance to him. He found a drawer filled with lacy, frilly feminine underwear and couldn't resist picking up a bra. After possessing breasts all day long, he was still amazed to realize he could fill such a piece of clothing now! And he realized the bras, panties, and pantyhose were his to wear for the next two weeks. Being a woman was more complicated than being a man. He hoped he was up to the task, but the makeup on the vanity table gave him a chill. Sydney had not told him how to use any of it.  
  
On the positive side, at least he was no longer standing in Sydney's invisible shadow. He had come out into the sun. He cast her shadow now! It was thrilling to be in charge but it made him uneasy at the same time. He had been glad to see the last class end and go home for the night. They had really had no choice but to switch places. After all, as Sydney had reasoned, all of her makeup and clothing were there, and it made no sense to exchange all their personal stuff around for what would hopefully be only a few weeks. Besides – how would it look? Sydney already had a less than stellar reputation for 'proper' and 'normal' conduct. Their switching residences would certainly be looked upon as weird. No' for the next two weeks they had to be each other, and hope that the god in the statue would agree to change them back!  
  
Nigel looked in the mirror and saw a beautiful, full figured, female body. He was the beautiful Sydney Fox, and he was now a fully functional woman, but his mind and soul were still that of a man! An Englishman! The first thing he did after kicking off her high heeled shoes and struggle out of her bra and panties was to take Sydney's body into the bathroom and wash all the grime from the days of travel off her body. That fit perfectly into his desire to finally see what the beautiful Dr. Fox looked like au natural. He enjoyed the sensations of taking her clothes off immensely and wasn't at all disappointed by what he saw in the mirror!  
  
After he finished the shower, he was a bit confused. Her body was fascinating, beautiful, and wonderful to touch, but he was inside that body! Except for some major exterior changes, it really was not that much different than washing his male body. In fact, it felt almost natural. Following Sydney's instructions, he dried his much longer hair and then proceeded to brush that hair one hundred times. It was rather a boring task, and his breasts kept getting in the way. He had to admit the excessive brushing made it shine, though. He looked in the mirror at the nude woman reflected back at him. There could be no doubt about it – he – or rather Sydney, of course, was a very beautiful woman!  
  
He pulled on a fresh pair of panties and moved over to the couch to do some homework for the next day. Without thinking, he curled up his now gorgeous long legs underneath him and started to read Sydney's notes for the upcoming lectures. He frowned. The words blurred. He cursed. He forgot she needed glasses to read fine print. He uncurled his feminine body with a cat-like grace and retrieved Sydney's reading glasses from her purse, returning to the couch.  
  
While Nigel read her notes, Sydney arrived at Nigel's studio apartment. It was the first time she had ever been there. 'What a dump!' she exclaimed with Nigel's English accent intruding. She wrinkled her nose. Didn't Nigel ever do his laundry? Well she couldn't live like this for two whole weeks! She gathered all the clothing in sight and drove to the nearest Laundromat. While waiting for his clothes to dry, she was approached by one of her students.  
  
"How do you stand working for Professor Fox, Nigel?"  
  
"Excuse me?" Syd exclaimed, confused.  
  
The young woman just shrugged. "She's the most arrogant and opinionated female I've ever met. I would rather dig coal in one of my daddy's mines than be her assistant! Well, my clothes are done. I'll see you in class!"  
  
She kissed Nigel on the cheek and sashayed out, followed by Syd's burning gaze. She was both confused and annoyed! Sydney was left with many questions. Who was that woman? One of her students, perhaps? How dare she say such things about her!  
  
When Sydney returned to Nigel's apartment, she put away his clothes neatly. In the bottom of one drawer, she found the spread she had done for playboy as an undergraduate. The magazine looked well worn. Syd grinned. "Well, Nigel, at least you certainly do have good taste! Glancing though her picture spread, Sydney was very surprised to find her new body reacting a little differently to the photos than she ever had back in her own body. It would obviously be more difficult than she had anticipated to pretend to be Nigel! She wondered how he was doing with her body.  
  
  
  
Meanwhile, a guard hurried away from the Ram statue. He could swear he heard a chuckled from it! That, of course, had to be his imagination!  
  
Statues can't laugh.  
  
Or, can they?  
  
  
  
End of part 4 


	5. Living New Lives...

****

Ramifications 5

By Eric, and Caleb Jones

Alarm clocks rang out in two very different domiciles. 

In the first, a very slim, lovely feminine hand reached over to shut off the classical music the alarm played. Nigel, cleverly disguised within the foxy body of Sydney Fox, sprang lithesome out of bed with a smile on her – or should that be his lips. Sydney had always been disgustingly cheerful in the morning – full of vim and vigor. Nigel had hated her for it – well, at least until he had his coffee! It seems he had inherited Sydney's morning habits along with her physique. He started singing cheerfully as he stepped into the shower. 

At another, less stylish residence, a slim male hand slammed down the button on a battered alarm radio blasting out British rock and roll classics. The instrument looked like it had seen such abuse often! Sydney groaned. What was wrong with her anyway? There was no way Nigel's body could be having a period, but she almost felt that bad. At least she didn't have cramps. She could barely open her eyes. Her body felt like it weighed a ton and her balance was nonexistent. She stumbled against Nigel's nightstand and cursed in Turkestan. (That ancient language had the best curses!) The coffee from the automatic coffeepot smelled heavenly. And Sydney slurped eagerly as her eyes finally opened most of the way. Dispiritedly, Sydney groaned as she picked out an outfit from Nigel's boring selection. If only she could wear a skirt again! God, she missed her life, she thought. Nigel had her life now, and he was probably making a mess out of it.

"Damn you, Ram!" she muttered. She looked around. No, she was alone. But she could have sworn she heard a nasty chuckle echo in the room!

It was weird going to the bathroom as a female. Nigel hoped he got his real body back before he grew used to being a woman. No doubt about it, men have it easier, he thought as he wiped himself clean. Nigel ate Sydney's usual breakfast of fruit, bacon and eggs. Syd never put on weight – her metabolism was too high, and she used up a lot of energy fighting off relic hunters and relic thieves! She told him once that only beers added weight to her slender frame. Now what to wear? No heels again today, that was for damn sure! Sydney had no classes today. No presentations to go to. He had a few of her classes to teach. Otherwise, there was just some boring office work to take care of, and it would be better for the real Syd to take care of it. He could take his time getting to work. It was a good thing he had the extra time. He would need it all to get his female body ready for the day!

He experimented with Sydney's makeup. A magazine Syd had recently purchased helped him decipher how to apply most of it, and with more than a little practice Nigel finally managed to get Sydney's face looking less like a clown and much closer to looking like its usual, beautiful self. He eventually realized that if he let his hands have their way and let his mind go blank, his fingers seemed to know what to do. With his face done, he slid silk panties on and then he cursed as he struggled with the bra! However, Sydney's generous tits sure needed the support or otherwise he would be flopping all over the place. They were fun to watch bouncing around in the privacy of Syd's bedroom, but not out in public. They drew enough attention even when well secured! He finally gave up trying to attach the bra from behind and hitched it up in front where he could see the uncomfortable thing. Then he twisted it around and pulled it up and on over his breasts. They refused to slip into the cups so he had the pleasant duty of holding and guiding Sydney's bosoms into the sexy silk brassiere. 

Keeping things in the comfort zone today, he chose elegant slacks, a blouse Sydney had picked up during their recent adventure in Hong Kong, and a blazer from Paris. He pulled them on over his curvy, feminine body. He slid Sydney's great legs into soft leather boots from Italy. He admired himself – or rather Sydney of course, in the mirror! She really was a beautiful woman! He was still amazed to realize he WAS she now!

Back in Nigel's cheap apartment, Sydney grimaced. Nigel might be cute in his self-effacing way but his fashion sense was almost invisible! She nicked herself shaving Nigel's face. OUCH! Not like shaving legs at all, like she had expected! How did guys do this every day! At least she didn't have to go through the motions of putting make up on. Nigel's face could use a lot of make up, but because of her current gender she just used soap and water and plucked a few stray hairs from his eyebrows. She managed to find a clean pair of pants and a shirt to wear that looked clean. She hated the feel of a tie so she did without. She put on a pair of Nigel's shoes on her huge male feet and sighed. She missed her heels! She looked for a purse, and then remembering who she was supposed to be, she grabbed Nigel's wallet and keys and left the building. 

Great! Nigel's car didn't start! She had to call AAA. She could hotwire a car but there wasn't much to be done with a dead battery but get a jumpstart. Syd sighed for her lost Jag! When she finally got to the office, Sydney smiled at Karen, who surprised by the friendly greeting smiled back. 

Nigel decided to have some fun with Syd. An opportunity like this only came once in a lifetime – hell, make that once in a million lifetimes!

"Nigel, you're late! You know how I hate it when you are not timely!"

Sydney jumped. It was startling to see her own body suddenly appear from behind the door to her office and to hear her own voice speak without her doing the talking!

Sydney sputtered inaudibly, a bit indignant.

"Well, just don't stand gaping like a lost goldfish as usual, in your English way! Come on inside, we have to go over today's schedule."

Sydney gave Nigel a dirty look, but went on in.

"What's the idea?" she asked.

Nigel just stared at her for a moment before continuing. "We've got jobs to do! And on that note, Nigel, we have to go over today's schedule. I have a meeting with Professor Smith at 2pm. What's on your agenda? Come on, Nigel, you know I hate it when you sputter – spit it out, man! Time's wasting!"

"I don't think this is funny, Nigel!" said Sydney, dangerously close to loosing her temper.

"I knew you would finally end up talking to yourself, Nigel! You're just too English! All those inhibitions are going to boil over some day."

Sydney's head whirled. She felt like clutching her temples to keep it from exploding. She had said the same thing to Nigel many times. What was he up to? Why was he acting like he was she, and the switch had never happened? She caught an amused glint in her beautiful eyes and knew that Nigel still lurked behind them. 

Then Nigel started laughing. "Sorry, Sydney, the temptation was irresistible! You should have seen your – I mean my face!"

Sydney, relieved, couldn't help but start laughing as well. "I would watch it if I were you, Nigel – "

"But you _are_ me!" gasped Nigel, hurting with laughter. It set them both off again.

Karen the secretary heard the merriment. She shook her head. Those two professors were just like little kids sometimes! Why didn't they grow up? Then she smiled. Of course, that Nigel is very cute. He's so helpless sometimes! He needs a woman to look after him!

In much better moods, Nigel went to teach Sydney's classes, while Sydney went to the library – she was going to try to find out more about that nasty little god Ram.

The day went better than Nigel expected. All he had to do was use Sydney's famous glare and even the rowdiest undergrad student crumpled. Her reputation as a very dangerous woman was well known, and not just at the University. Some of the bravest men and the toughest crooks throughout the world were in awe of Sydney Fox!

Sydney was not reassured by what she found in the University library. All the ancient chronicles confirmed her suspicions. Ram was the god of dirty tricks and very illusive in recent times. She had thought these legends amusing and quaint before. But now she was living one of them and the joke was on her! Sometimes he could be appeased by the sacrifice of bulls but that information seemed rather pointless in this day and era. Besides, there was no way she could get a bull into the museum and slaughter it.

Nigel had dinner that night with a visiting professor in Sumarian culture. He had a great meal and a good bottle of wine and the conversation was fascinating. The much older man treated him with such respect! But then the evening turned bad when the man made a pass at him and Nigel had to kick him out – literally!

In Nigel's apartment, Sydney was eating a Subway sandwich. Nigel's billfold was almost empty. She would have to get some money from him tomorrow. In the refrigerator, she found Nigel's stash of English ales. 'Hmmm! A million calories, but so what I don't have to worry about watching my figure any longer!' she thought. She drank three ales while reading. Boy did they taste good!

The next morning at Sydney's house Nigel, in Sydney's beautiful, energetic body, woke up with a smile. He hummed and sang while getting ready. He looked in the mirror. 'I – I am mean Sydney of course – are so damned beautiful.' It gave him confidence. 

Meanwhile, Sydney groaned as she staggered out of bed. It was made worse because, no longer worried about her figure, she had drunk all those beers and now she had a huge hangover! She never got hangovers. Well, she did now! It even hurt to brush her teeth. 'Nigel should have warned me' she grumbled.

Karen grinned when Sydney got to work. 

"Somebody had a little too much to drink the night before, didn't they?"

"Oh, shut up, Karen!"

"Nigel, you wouldn't' drink so much if you had a girl friend." Karen walked up close to 'him'.

Sydney could feel her closeness and smell her perfume. Why the little flirt! Syd thought with amusement, then she realized – 'Hey, she is really sexy!' It was educational being on the receiving end of a woman's flirtations instead of being the flirt herself! 

Teasingly, Karen then moved away and smiled smugly. The smile vanished when she saw the person who she thought was her boss stride breezily in.

"Hi, Nigel, Karen. Beautiful morning, isn't it?"

"Is it?" answered Sydney peevishly.

After a few aspirins, Sydney felt better and started grading papers. Nigel had, without comment, dug into his purse and given her all the money she asked for. If he got his body back, he wanted it in good shape!

Nigel lunched with newspaper reporters from New York, and was thrilled to get their hero worship. Sydney lunched at the University student lunchroom to conserve her finances. It would be too embarrassing to ask Nigel for even more money!

So it went for a week as they waited for the Chancellor to return. Nigel got use to speaking in front of classes and began to enjoy it! Sydney got use to being treated like a nobody, but she didn't like it at all!

Then Nigel got Sydney period. 

How Sydney laughed to hear him scream bloody murder! "What's wrong Nigel, not man enough to be a woman?"

"It's not funny, Sydney! I'm bleeding!"

"Of course it is, and you are! It's too hilarious!"

"It's disgusting and unpleasant!"

"Stiff up lip, old boy – err -- girl!" She laughed. Hey, this body switch business did have it good points! Like, as a guy, she would have no periods! And Nigel having hers in her place was a bonus!

Nigel glared at her angrily. Men! They don't know what its like! Well, Sydney did, of course, but still… He spent the morning snapping at everyone! Then he took control of his mood swings. I'm not going to show weakness! Sydney's laughing at me all day. It was embarrassing to hear Karen mutter, "Somebody got her period! If Karen ever found out he was Sydney, he would never hear the end of it!

Karen asked Nigel to help her after work and take her car into the shop. "You know mechanics try and screw over women, Nigel. I can't afford to get a big bill!"

'Nigel', did know! Sydney had battled many a repairman who assumed that, just because she was a woman, she didn't understand the amount of work needed to fix a car or refrigerator. She had always set them straight. She would be happy to help a friend in need! Sydney was both amused and attracted by Karen's flirting with her. She must admit that Nigel's body found the girl very sexy. It was a weird feeling. Sydney was amused with the smooth way she maneuvered her into buying dinner. It was a tactic every girl learned, and it worked quite well on her currently male libido! When they said goodnight, somehow Sydney found the curvy girl in her manly arms, and the goodnight kiss was explosive! 

Karen was well satisfied. She really had Nigel all hot and bothered. It felt good. She still had it! She smiled tantalizingly and left a confused Sydney at the door.

"WOW!" thought Sydney. "No wonder we woman have men by the balls!"

At Sydney's house Nigel changed yet another tampon. YUCK! He hated the sight of blood! Being a woman stunk! He wanted his real body back!

Nigel looked around. He could have sworn he heard a mischievous chuckle! 

To be continued next week!


	6. Nigel makes the call...

Editor's note. For this story, we have chosen to refer to Nigel and Sidney as they think of themselves, EXCEPT when they are talking to Karen or other people who do not know about the change in identities!  
  
As always, we do not own the characters, just the story we have thrown them into. Thus, this story may not be reposted at any pay-to-read site.  
  
  
  
Eric and Caleb present…  
  
Ramifications part 6: Nigel makes the call…  
  
After Karen's most recent flirtations, Sydney was trying to decide if her assistant was seriously interested in Nigel or just teasing. Nigel was too nice a guy for Karen to mess around with. It was harder to tell when she was the one receiving Karen's attentions. Sydney had only been a man for little over a week, after all. She would have a woman to woman talk with Karen when she got her body back and she was a woman again.  
  
There was only one person who could mess with Nigel and she was that person. Sydney smiled. Messing with Nigel was so easy now! All she had to do this week was sit back and watch. It was strange listening to Nigel ask embarrassing questions about feminine hygiene as he struggled with her period instead of herself! It was about time a man suffered through the curse!  
  
She couldn't resist laughing once Nigel went off to the lady's room to 'freshen up'. Syd stopped by the auditorium between classes and listened to him whine a little more about nearly fainting at the first signs of blood, (though she had to reluctantly admit Nigel was doing better handling his first period then she thought he would!). Feeling a little bit sorry for him, (though only a LITTLE bit), Sydney put on her best fake Transylvanian accent and said 'Vhat does not destroy us will make us stronger, right Nige?'  
  
If overheard by a reporter, Nigel's reply could not be printed in the newspaper. Syd was proud of him. She didn't think he had it in him to be so uninhibited. It certainly wasn't British of him. He had obviously been paying attention the last few times she lost her own temper. She also decided that she didn't like seeing herself swear like a sailor and made a mental promise to curb her language in the future. Still, staring at her true, original body, she realized something an old boyfriend had once told her was true. She really WAS beautiful when she was angry!  
  
The next day Sydney had an idea, and she went into what was for now Nigel's office to discuss it with him. She found him with his - or rather her - great legs stretched out on her desk in what used to be Sydney's typical posture when she wanted to relax. He grinned at her and adjusted his miniskirt, succeeding only in exposing even more skin! It wasn't his fault that all of her clothes were so revealing! Sydney was the one who had bought the clothes he was wearing. It was a shame to hide such great looking limbs, so he left them proudly on display. He felt no need to hide them under the desk since Sydney had seen them in all their glory every day of her life until their unfortunate encounter with the Ram statue. His only regret was that he no longer enjoyed the sight of her legs even when they were neatly crossed and looking good. There was just something about her legs currently being his own that ruined the otherwise pleasant view.  
  
"What's up, Doc?" he asked with Sydney lighthearted tones.  
  
Sydney grinned back. "Nice skirt, Nigel! I wish I could be the one to wear it again. On that line of thought, I think perhaps we need to make time to go back to the museum and check out the statue of Ram. Even if we can't get it back in our possession, we can still look at it and our needs might be met simply with close proximity and sincere pleading with the spirit of the statue."  
  
Their situation did have more than a few humorous aspects. Sydney was about to speak further about her plan when she became aware of an excellent opportunity when she saw Karen sneak over to listen at the door. She jerked her head towards the door to signal Karen's presence to Nigel. His lovely plucked eyebrows went up in surprise at the shadowy image of their secretary through the foggy glass window on the door. He nodded understandingly, his long hair falling in his face. Karen needed another lesson in office etiquette and privacy, he realized as he brushed the errant strands from his eyes.  
  
Sydney shifted back to calling Nigel by her own name as Karen would expect, and began the playful lesson in the merits of privacy.  
  
"Do you really think Karen's pay has to be cut after Friday, Syd?"  
  
Speaking with Sydney's lovely voice, Nigel said, "There is just no money left in the budget, Nigel. Or do YOU want to be the one to take a pay cut instead of…"  
  
"Poor Karen…"  
  
"Literally!" Nigel added.  
  
"Indeed!" Syd said with her best impression of Nigel's British accent, and they both laughed!  
  
They went sailing out the door as Karen scrambled back into her chair.  
  
"We're going over to the Boston museum, Karen. Be sure and stay put for any phone calls!" ordered Nigel in Sydney's best take-no-prisoners' attitude.  
  
Sydney thought he was sounding more and more like her every day. It was a little bit frightening how well he could imitate her.  
  
"Yes, Dr. Fox!" she said. On the way out, she made a point of brushing against Nigel's cute ass. He was so much fun to tease. She pulled out the books, determined to find some extra money in the budget so she wouldn't have to take that cut in her salary!  
  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
  
  
At the museum, people fell all over themselves and gave 'Miss Fox' the red carpet treatment. She had retrieved enough relics to fill an entire wing of the museum in her young career as a relic-hunting educator! It drove Sydney nuts to hear all the praise heaped on Nigel. Nigel on the other hand, rather enjoyed all the flattery and bowing and scraping. He sure didn't get it as himself often, although he endured the same dangers as Sydney!  
  
It was almost an hour before they were allowed any privacy.  
  
"Anything interesting happening with the Ram Statue?" Sydney inquired of the guard. She noticed the man looked nervous and saw him glance quickly towards the incredibly alarmed glass case, and then back again. The statue some called Mr. Ram seemed to be innocently staring at a wall of badly carved monkeys eating bananas made in 3000 BC, and had unfortunately survived long enough to be placed in a museum to trouble further generations.  
  
"No, -ER- no… " He stammered. They might think he was nuts if he told them he thought he had heard the tiny statue laugh yesterday. He walked hurriedly away.  
  
"Not very convincing, was he? You don't supposed Mr. Ram switched him and someone else like he did us?" said Sydney.  
  
"I certainly hope not!" Nigel said. A bit scared, they walked hand in hand up to the statue, which mysterious seemed to change position and now was looking innocently into their eyes.  
  
"Please, Mr. Ram would you be kind enough to return us to our regular bodies and forget our foolish, stupid wish?" asked Sydney.  
  
It had to be their imagination. Statues can't smile - can they?  
  
"PLEASE!" begged Sydney again, with Nigel echoing her.  
  
Impossibly, they could swear they heard an early twentieth century song from the ancient statue "I'm Forever Chasing Rainbows."  
  
Sydney almost gave in to the urge to break the glass case and strangle the god.  
  
They left the museum, climbed into Sydney's Jaguar, and roared away. Nigel just loved the feel of his now long hair floating behind him in the wind. It made him feel so carefree and sexy, and the wind kept it out of his eyes!  
  
"I'd like to chisel that smug smile off Ram's face!" said Sydney savagely.  
  
"Easy, Sydney" said Nigel. "That's your testosterone speaking!  
  
She let out a long breath. "You're right, but I can't wait to get the little weasel in my hands." She made a motion of ringing a neck and Nigel laughed with Syd's charming, feminine voice.  
  
When they got back to the office, Karen handed 'Sydney' a message. Nigel looked at it. The name meant nothing to him.  
  
"Nigel, come into my office, please." he said. It was getting to be second nature for them not to slip up in public with the wrong names.  
  
"Whose is Simon De Beaumont?" he asked after the door closed. Karen must have been busy elsewhere since the window of the office door remained shadow free. He was surprised to see Sydney blush upon hearing the name. She took her time answering.  
  
"He's an old… friend " she said hesitantly.  
  
"Friend?" asked Nigel with Sydney's cocked, skeptical eyebrow. "I guess I won't call him back if it's not important, then."  
  
Sydney sighed. She would have to come clean. "OK, we were once an item back in college. He asked me to marry him and I turned him down, as I wanted to get my career established. She took a deep breath. "He said he would ask me again when I was well established. We've kept in touch over the years. He's from old money and is an undersecretary of State."  
  
Nigel grinned with the charming Sydney Fox smile. "So, that's how you were able to get us out of so many diplomatic disasters around the world!" The mystery was, at last, explained!  
  
Sydney found she couldn't control her blushing now that she was in Nigel's easily embarrassed body.  
  
"So what do you want me to do?"  
  
Sydney thought. It was agony, but there was only thing Nigel could do.  
  
"You have to call him and, if he wants to go out to dinner, you need to go."  
  
"ME?"  
  
"Well he will hardly want to take out my short, male assistant."  
  
Nigel didn't like to be reminded of his lack of stature. But he controlled himself. For now, he was a tall, beautiful woman, not an insignificant scholar.  
  
"Since you were considering marriage, I suppose you have a pet name I'll have to call him?"  
  
Sydney blushed and Nigel's former face turned scarlet red with embarrassment. "Cuddlecums…"  
  
Nigel was naturally revolted. "Cuddlecums?" he asked in horrified accents.  
  
"YES! But you don't have to call him that on the phone, just call him Simon."  
  
The last thing Nigel wanted to do was talk to a former lover of Sydney's, but he had little choice. He punched out the man's number on the phone, and looked up at Sydney for support. "Stay close, and pick up the other line. You may have to tell me what to say."  
  
"Hello Simon, good to hear from you." Nigel said. He could tell Sydney was dying to talk to the man, but under the present circumstances, he would have to do the talking for her. He was enjoying seeing Sydney squirm instead of him for a change.  
  
"Sydney baby, you're never far from my thoughts. Thank you for sending me that picture of Nigel, your wimpy assistant. I had been so jealous until I saw it. I know you could never be interested in such a wuss! "  
  
Nigel gritted his borrowed teeth while Syd just shrugged her manly shoulders and blushed again. Nigel was furious! How dare this man call him a wuss! Despite his anger, he managed to keep his voice as smooth as honey.  
  
"I'm glad, it reassured you. You know how much you have meant to me over the years." The poor schmuck on the other end was lapping it up. Sydney certainly had him wrapped around her little finger.  
  
"Sydney, I have some time off! I would like to fly up and have us spend the weekend together. I know its short notice, but I have to go abroad soon for a year."  
  
Nigel covered the phone and whispered to the real Sydney, "Yeah, like that is going to happen!"  
  
"Agree to it!" she hissed back at the man who occupied her body  
  
"NO!" Nigel whispered back, horrified at the idea of going out with a man, especially this man, who obviously had once known Sydney's body better than he did!  
  
"If you don't go out with him, than I will!" Sydney told him. Nigel blanched, his face turning pale under his makeup. What would people think if his body started dating a man? He could never allow that to happen. There was only one thing Nigel could say…  
  
"That would be wonderful, (and in response to Syd's threat, he glared at her and added, "Cuddlecums!"  
  
Syd closed her eyes, angry to hear another woman call her old beau by that endearing name, even though it was actually her very own body doing the talking. There was nothing easy about this bodyswapping business, she thought.  
  
"Oh, Honeybear, you missed me too! Even the sound of your sexy voice makes me feel so wonderful! I can't wait to see you in person again and give you a big kiss!"  
  
Nigel regretted saying that pet name. Now the man planned to kiss him! What else had he unleashed with that one dumb word?  
  
Sydney and Nigel could swear they heard a low laugh from somewhere...  
  
  
  
To be continued if comments continue to come in requesting that we do so, so be sure to respond if you have read this far! We are only half way through this story! 


	7. Simon makes his move!

Ramifications 7:  
  
Sydney was very worried. She paced up and down. She didn't know what to do about Simon arriving in town. She could hardly go out with him looking like she did now. Somehow, she suspected Simon would hardly have any interest in her now that Nigel possessed her body and her luscious figure. The best solution would be if Simon visited later, after their strange body-exchange had been reversed, but there was no way that could happen for at least one more week. There was however, at least a slim chance that his visit could turn out well with Nigel in charge of her life. Nigel could be surprisingly adaptive given unexpected circumstances.  
  
If only she could stop Simon from visiting now, but she was damned if she did something to halt the meeting with Simon, and she was damned if she did nothing! Nigel was hardly ready to face dinner with her old boyfriend! Well it was too late now. Nigel was toying with disaster big time by pretending to be her with her long time beau. He could never pull it off, but what other choice did he have but to try to bluff his way through the reunion. Sydney tried to be supportive of the man who had to pretend to be her!  
  
Hearing that Simon was planning to propose to him had upset Nigel. He had almost fainted. Sydney tried to allay his fears. "Don't worry, Nigel! He may ask you to marry him but he won't press you to have sex after you say yes. Cuddlecums - Simon - I mean, is a real, honest to goodness gentleman. Now remember, if he asks you to marry him say - yes - after a suitable engagement, of course. That should buy us plenty of time until after he comes back from his diplomatic travels to schedule a wedding. This will give us time to make all the wedding arrangements. And time is what we need. Damn Ram to hell for being so uncooperative!"  
  
"You want to get married, Syd? Why?"  
  
"Why not! I want to have kids and a husband just like everyone else does! You may not be able to hear it but my biological clock is ticking. As I get older, I will simply not be able to have quite the same number of adventures in the future and I want someone to come home to."  
  
"I guess I can understand that, Sydney. I think we all want to come home to someone we love at the end of the day." A tear formed in his eye as he realized that for the past few years he had begun to think that the woman he would eventually come home to might be Sydney. Apparently, she had other plans all this time. He brushed the tear away before she could see it. It must be the influence of Sydney's feminine body. He was usually the stiff up lip type back in his own body.  
  
With her beau coming to town, Sydney decided she needed a new dress to wear for the occasion, even if Nigel would be the one to wear it instead of her. So she took him out to buy a new gown. Nigel argued but Syd was determined. The sales people looked at the couple oddly as they argued about what outfit to buy.  
  
Nigel finally got upset with the staff's looks as he prepared to select his first dress and he finally turned towards the onlookers and, with a bit of Syd's fire, he said, "Do you mind, ladies? I just want my friend to give me a man's opinion and tell me if I look sexy. I am hoping to get a proposal tonight."  
  
This touched the saleswomen in their feminine hearts. They rushed into the back of the store and bought out their best gowns. They knew how important it was to get a man off balance to spring the final trap.  
  
So, Nigel was soon looking prettier than any other woman in the store. A sexy, shimmering backless black gown hugged his borrowed curves. Sydney was pleased with the way her borrowed and beautiful breasts were amply displayed! The whole effect was elegant and drops dead gorgeous! She had to sit down for a minute since the sight of her beautiful body was doing strange things to her temporary masculine plumbing and it was becoming rather noticeable.  
  
"These bloody shoes are pinching my feet! Toes don't come to a point in the middle!" He kicked off the four-inch heels with relief.  
  
"Oh, stop your whining, Nigel. You sound more and more like a real woman all the time. You know I need to see how the dress looks in heels!"  
  
Nigel compressed his pouty lips.  
  
Syd observed the dress she had settled on. Nigel in her old body was looking incredibly beautiful! His make up was perfect, Sydney decided, and so was the dress! Everything was perfect - except for the trifling little fact that they were still in the wrong bodies! But there was nothing to be done about that for now. Damn Ram!  
  
Sydney prayed that Nigel would not mess this up for her. Nigel gave the saleswoman her credit card and thanked the woman for her expert help.  
  
"My pleasure, dear! You go get him, girl!"  
  
As they drove back, Sydney went over the schedule for the big date.  
  
"Well, you're ready to pick him up at his hotel at seven-thirty."  
  
"I know, you've told me a dozen times to get there on time! I am still relieved Simon isn't staying at my - your house!"  
  
"Nigel, we aren't kids - we both have reputations to maintain. He's a VIP in government diplomatic circles and I - "  
  
Nigel grinned at her with her own painted lips. Enough of her old boyfriends had visited her in the past couple of years for him to have a good idea of her love life. "I've seen what kind of reputation you have - a man in every port."  
  
Sydney itched to lay Nigel out cold. But it simply wasn't practical. First, he was in her body, so it would her body she would be slugging. Second, since he currently her, and possessed her reflexes, he could kick the excrement out of her now. They had worked out in the university gym everyday and Nigel had gained her fighting skills along with her beautiful face and figure. Nigel had loved discovering he possessed all of her martial arts abilities! During their sparring, he had more than once laid her low. It was another source of humiliation to Sydney.  
  
"Well, it's YOUR reputation now, Miss Fox!" she replied.  
  
Feeling very funny and forlorn, and somewhat abandoned, Sydney watched as Nigel dropped her off at his apartment. She wanted to cry as Nigel, inside her drop-dead gorgeous body, got behind the wheel of her car and drove off to pick up her college sweetheart.  
  
"I'll get you for this, Ram!" she said though clenched teeth. She whirled around but saw no one. Who was snickering?  
  
God was she depressed. She should be wearing that dress but the way she looked now... She needed a drink! She finished off a half of a bottle of whiskey and then headed to the local college watering hole. Karen was there and she beckoned Sydney over to her table to the disappointment of many a man at the bar.  
  
"Boy, Professor Fox seemed excited to hear from her boyfriend!" said the sexy blond secretary.  
  
The apparent Nigel nodded glumly. Then 'he' jumped as Karen laid a hand on his leg and smiled seductively. Syd gulped down a whisky and soda. It wasn't her favorite drink, but it was Nigel's. Since she was in his body now, she liked the combo a lot more. Sydney turned to Karen to ask her what her game was and found her self being kissed like there was no tomorrow by her own beautiful blond secretary. She felt Karen's great body pressed up against her and boy did it turn her all too masculine body on.  
  
"Come on back to my place Nigel, it will be a greater adventure than any you've ever shared with Sydney!" she breathed in Nigel's ear.  
  
The girl was right, thought Sydney. What was sex like as a man? How could anyone pass on such an opportunity? She would explain to Nigel it was a 'scientific experiment' if he ever found out!  
  
"You're on!" said Syd, rather flushed and uninhibited from drink (not that Sydney was ever very inhibited!). Nigel's capacity for alcohol was nowhere near the amount she could drink. Sydney could, and had, drank many would-be rivals in relic hunting under the table.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Nigel felt very strange all night long. After more than a week in Sydney's body, he still found it hard to believe that he was dressed in a beautiful evening dress that hugged his borrowed curves like - well, like a lover. He was wearing four-inch heels and his hair and make-up had been done by the best beauty parlor around! Bloody hell! What an experience the parlor had been. When they had asked him if he wanted a leg wax, he assumed it was some sort of oil applied to the legs to make them extra silky smooth. He could still feel the pain in his mind! Nigel had felt like an astronaut visiting an alien planet as he discovered the pain women suffered in order to make themselves beautiful.  
  
He couldn't say it had been worth all the pain, but the sight of a coiffured and made up Sydney in the mirror was entrancing, even if it was himself he was looking at.  
  
After driving to the hotel, he had been enthusiastically greeted by Simon. The passionate kiss on the lips took him totally by surprise. He was amazed to find his body enjoying the man's attentions. He found himself smiling at an elegantly dressed, very tall, dark and handsome man. His borrowed body found that man quite attractive. If his mind thought the guy looked good, Sydney must really like the guy, Nigel thought. Obviously, the body overruled the mind in such matters.  
  
After taking a deep breath, Nigel handed Simon 'Cuddlecums' Beaumont the keys to the Jag as Sydney had instructed. For such a liberated young woman, she had some old-fashioned notions about dating, Nigel reflected. The man smiled and kissed 'Sydney's' hand as he helped Nigel enter the passenger side of the car. With his high heels and tight gown, it was no easy task for even a woman born but with Simon's aid, he managed to get in safely. Simon sat in the driver's seat and they left for their reunion dinner.  
  
Nigel flushed; embarrassed at being kissed on his hand by such a masculine man, more than a little horrified that he had enjoyed the attention. After they pulled up in front of the restaurant, Simon opened the passenger door and Nigel slid out, flashing his great legs for several other patrons to see.  
  
Women glared at him and men stared at him as he was led to the table by the headwaiter. Over dinner, per Sydney's orders, he talked about Sydney's and his recent adventures. Alternately, he listened to Simon's flamboyant descriptions of battles with foreign governments and bureaucracy. He laughed. The man had a good sense of humor.  
  
"... believe me, sometimes I felt like the Russians and Iranians and Iraqis combined were friendly powers compared to the people I had to deal with in France this year!" he laughed.  
  
`What a charming man!' thought Nigel, his head spinning with champagne. And oh, so handsome! Sydney's a lucky girl. I wonder if he plans to kiss me again later... - WHAT AM I THINKING! - Nigel coughed on the champagne and excused himself to visit the ladies' room.  
  
As he sat in front of a mirror and fixed his lipstick, another woman came in and asked the woman Nigel appeared to be if `she' could introduce her to whatever Devil `she' had obviously sold her soul to in order to find such a fabulous man. Nigel couldn't help but smile at her joke. It was true! Simon was quite a man! He was a lucky woman! NO! Sydney was the lucky woman, and he was a man! After thinking that thought, he promised himself to drink only water for the rest of the evening. He was obviously drunk if he could consider himself any kind of a woman, even a lucky one, despite the body he possessed that obviously made such a statement the truth.  
  
Nigel was amazed how well he could dance backward. He was grace personified in his beautiful body. After a few minutes, dancing with a man didn't seem terribly unpleasant. No, not unpleasant at all. He placed his head on the strong shoulder of his date and they danced for several hours until the club closed for the night.  
  
Later that night back at Sydney's house, to Nigel's shock and amazement, Simon 'Cuddlecums' Beaumont got down on his knees and proposed. It was a situation Nigel had never thought would happen to him, and it touched his borrowed and totally feminine heart.  
  
"My darling Sydney, my wild little Honey Bear, I love you more than life itself! Make me the luckiest, happiest man in the world. Finally say YES and marry me!"  
  
`Damn! I have to accept - for Sydney's Sake! She insisted! And Simon looks so sweet!' Nigel thought to himself. His heart was in his mouth, but the words poured out as if Sydney herself were speaking them!  
  
"Yes, oh yes, Cuddlecums! I'll marry you!"  
  
Then they were in each other's arms, kissing.  
  
Nigel did not hear a subdued chuckle in the back of his mind as Mr. Ram enjoyed the adventures of his latest... study... in human nature.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Sydney clutched her hungover head as she woke up in a strange bed. A naked Karen came in from her kitchen. "Breakfast, love!" she called happily. "Then maybe some more 'dessert if you are up to it!" she said suggestively.  
  
`What have I done,' thought Sydney, as she scrambled out of bed. Karen has fallen for Nigel and he's out on a date with my future fiancé!  
  
Unknown to Sydney and Nigel, Karen had opened a cablegram addressed to Nigel at the office - which had read that two cousins had died while trying to climb Everest and he now was the Earl of Sandwich!  
  
`Lady Karen, Countess of Sandwich!' Karen said to herself as she tried out the title. Not bad, not bad at all! Nigel is very cute and he does need me to look after him after he gets away from the crazy Professor Fox! She would not tell him about the letter now, but pretend it was lost in the mail - until they sent a formal letter and she could pretend to be amazed at the good news!  
  
Sydney looked around. "Karen, did you hear someone chuckle?"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Harold Stone, the forty-two year old comptroller of the museum, hurried away from a glass case. Statues can't laugh! Statues can't sing! He must be losing his mind. He tried to shut out strains of "Anything Goes'! He said goodnight to Susan, his pretty secretary leaving the building. God, she must have it made, her whole life is in front of her! Susan has a close family and a steady boyfriend. What a life that must be! I wish my life were more like hers..."  
  
Susan looked at Mr. Stone as she left and thought, "He has it made. He makes a lot of money and has no nagging mother like mine to fight with! He's a carefree bachelor with lots of girlfriends. My boyfriend is a real jerk! I wish my life could be more like his...  
  
A moment of dizziness passed and suddenly Harold found himself outside in the parking lot pulling a set of car keys from a purse. Reflected in the window of the car was the image of his attractive secretary Susan! It was HIS reflection! HE WAS SUSAN! It had to be a dream! He had no wife, no kids and few friends to leave behind, and he was suddenly years younger and beautiful! He unlocked the car and drove to the address on her driver's license, thinking what a lucky break he had been handed by whatever it was that had placed him in Susan's younger, beautiful body! He had no intentions of allowing this chance for a new life to slip through his fingers!  
  
He put his key in the lock of the door and entered his new home. He began to smile until a hard faced woman crept around a corner and said, "You foolish daughter, have you forgotten again to stop for the groceries I asked you to pick up. Now how am I going to cook dinner? You go right back out and buy them!"  
  
Stunned, Harold did what he was told, taking a list from the woman like it was an ingrained habit and getting back into Susan's car again. As he pushed a cart around the grocery store, his feet started to hurt in the high heels. `Maybe the shoes are worth the discomfort...' he thought, as several men seemed to enjoy looking at his female form.  
  
The attention seemed strange, yet somehow pleasing. He found himself staring back at one of the more attractive men much to his surprise! Still, he could hardly wait to get home again and soak his sore feet in some hot water.  
  
Meanwhile, after getting over the first wave of shock, Susan made her way to Mr. Stone's brand new Mercedes. She could hardly go home to her mother looking the way she did now so she found Mr. Stone's address in his wallet and went to her new home. It turned out to be a great apartment. Everything seemed super until she took a shower and found out she had a toupee...!  
  
To be continued soon...  
  
Thanks for your comments and keep sending them. They fuel our imaginations! 


	8. The Set Up...

Ramifications 8 – The Set Up  
  
By Eric, and Caleb Jones  
  
  
  
Sydney sat down Nigel's body in Nigel's chair, thinking 'What have I done? What have I done?' She looked across at Karen, who winked suggestively back at the man she had soundly enjoyed being with the night before. Little did Karen realize the body she had made love to had been operated by the very feminine mind of her boss, Sydney!  
  
But Sydney was all too aware of her new, manly body and what she had done with it the night before! 'How many hundreds of times in my life', she wondered to herself, 'have I laughed or thought men stupid because that were manipulated by females into disastrous situations? And here I am, getting involved with Karen. Nigel will kill me when he finds out!"  
  
"Remember what I told you, not a word to Sydney!" said Syd earnestly. "Nigel would not understand!" Hell, she didn't understand it herself and she had been there!  
  
Karen grinned lasciviously at her new lover. "Whatever you say, stud! What a weekend! I knew you were cute and intelligent, but I never dreamed you knew the ins and outs of a woman's sexuality like that! You've been holding out on me!" The beautiful girl leaned forward suggestively.  
  
"On the other hand, Nigel might very well thank me!" she thought!" Still, Sydney was relieved that the entrance of the apparent Professor Fox stopped further conversation. Nigel walked in looking every inch the beautiful, sexy world-famous relic hunter as he maneuvered Sydney's body past the receptionist area.  
  
"I'd like to see you in my office, Nigel." 'she' said.  
  
Sydney stood up and followed her real body, feeling guilty for staring at her own ass wiggle as Nigel led the way.  
  
Before Sydney could even sit down, Nigel asked, "Where were you? I tried to call several times with the news, but got no answer!" Nigel asked.  
  
Syd decided to tell part of the truth. "I was mostly out drinking."  
  
Nigel laughed, then shook his head to direct his long dark hair away from his face. "I hope my liver can take it. I guess I can't blame you, what with me pretending to be you with your college sweetheart. As to the news, you were right - he did propose, and I accepted for you as you asked! It was a really weird experience getting a marriage proposal, I never thought it would happen to me, I can tell you!"  
  
"Thanks, Nigel!" That was one good thing anyway, Syd thought. "You didn't - ah…"  
  
Nigel gave her Sydney's most sincere stare. "Of course not! What kind of a man do you think I am? I am not the kind to use your body to have sex with your fiancé! Only a morally loose and deceptive person would do something that despicable!" There was no need to mention what he had done underneath the covers of Sydney's bed at several times since occupying her body and her life.  
  
Sydney looked down. "Sorry! I didn't mean to imply otherwise. I was just jealous, I guess. Cuddlecums wouldn't even look twice at me looking the way that I do now. Not that you are not handsome, of course, Nigel!"  
  
"That's OK! Well, shall we see if the old fart is in?"  
  
Outside Karen took another look at the Cablegram and nodded. "So, far so good!" she breathed.  
  
The Chancellor was in, and soon Nigel had him on the phone.  
  
"Sydney, how's my favorite Professor?"  
  
"Just fine, sir."  
  
"Now Sydney, how many times have I told you to call me Clarence?"  
  
Nigel paused and took a deep breath. He had trouble getting use to all this fuzzy American informality.  
  
"Clarence, I wonder if I could see you today?"  
  
"I'm afraid not, Sydney. Today, my schedule is filled. Not an opening, I'm afraid. Nor the next day. But I am free for dinner Wednesday."  
  
'Great… just great…' Nigel thought to himself. 'I can hardly wait…' Nigel made a face for Sydney to see, but kept his voice sweet sounding with just a hint of Sydney' sexy murmur. "Dinner it is, then."  
  
"And Sydney, do you think it would be too much trouble for you to cook me your famous suckling pig? Oops, I have a call on the other line, gotta go. I'll call you later, dear."  
  
"What do you me you want me to cook suckling pig?" Nigel shouted into the phone, but Clarence had hung up. "Suckling pig?" He asked Sydney with astonishment. Who cooked suckling pig in this era? Sydney groaned, but nodded Nigel's head resignedly. Once she had bragged to Clarence that she had learned how to cook suckling pig when she was growing up in Hawaii, and the man had insisted on it at least once a year ever since.  
  
Nigel glanced at the Rolex on his slim wrist, and stood up; straightening out his skirt which had ridden up his sexy thighs. "Well, I'm off to teach Ancient Studies 404. I hope the class is better prepared than they were last week."  
  
"I'll get going on the dinner arrangements. It's not easy getting a suckling pig, you know!" Sydney noticed that Nigel was more confident in his performance as her everyday. She couldn't decide if this was good or not. She also couldn't believe that she had allowed Karen to drag her out for a 'nooner'. But the beautiful, sexy girl had threatened to tell Professor Fox about them after Sydney had tried to get out of it. Unfortunately, since Karen was Nigel's secretary as well as hers, she was well aware of opportunities to sneak off with 'him' for a 'quickie'! Sydney had to admit her present body quite enjoyed the mid-day activity!  
  
Later that evening at Sydney's home, Nigel was making himself look pretty while Sydney was slaving away cooking a suckling pig feast. Nigel looked with a still unfamiliar feminine satisfaction at the lovely vision reflected in the mirror. He was drop dead gorgeous! The Chancellor wouldn't be able to refuse the beautiful anything she wanted! He put on some dangly earrings and admired the way they looked on Sydney's face.  
  
The phone rang. Nigel picked it up,  
  
"Honey Bear!" came over a crackling connection.  
  
"Cuddlecums - I mean Simon!" Nigel said. "I thought you wouldn't be able to call until next month."  
  
"I pulled some strings, but I only have a minute. I love you so much! Damn it! They are telling me I have to hang up! Darling, I love you!" There was a click and the line went dead.  
  
Nigel felt very funny putting down the receiver. Simon was the nicest, kindest, most generous man he had ever met. He felt bad about deceiving him.  
  
The doorbell rang. "Once more into the breech, dear friends, once more. Let's fill the gap with our English dead!" muttered Nigel recalling an old book he had read back in his college days. He checked his - or rather Sydney's appearance once more in the mirror. He really looked sexy! The Chancellor would be putty in his hands. He practiced Sydney's sexiest smile, and opened the door.  
  
"Well, hello Clarence! Good of you to spare me the time." Nigel flashed Sydney's best smile and gave him a smoldering look. The poor pot-bellied man practically melted right on the rug.  
  
He stammered something or other. 'Sydney' poured the man his favorite drink, a ladyfinger and Nigel drank down a bit of Syd's usual straight rum. He eyed the man seductively over the glass, trying to picture the oafish man as a seductive Baywatch-type babe. Then he called out, "Nigel!" and Sydney came in pulling a portable table with side dishes surrounding a succulent suckling pig!  
  
"It looks fantastic, as usual, Sydney, my dear, and it smells even more heavenly!" After 'Nigel' returned to the kitchen and they were alone, Nigel really turned up the heat. If he had to be embarrassed, he would rather Sydney wasn't in the room watching him make a fool of himself.  
  
"Clarence, I want to ask a favor of you" purred Nigel, leaning closer to the repulsive man so he had a good view of his prominent cleavage.  
  
"Anything for you, Sydney!" he gulped.  
  
"You're so sweet!" Nigel said, trying hard not to loose his cookies, as he looked the man 'soulfully' in the eyes. "It's nothing much. It's just that something unexpected has come up in regard to the Ram Statue and I would like to borrow it from the museum for a few days to do further research on it. It could lead to an even greater treasure for the museum." The last part was a lie, but he and Sydney were getting more than a little desperate to get their real bodies back. He was willing to say anything to speed up the process!  
  
"That doesn't sound unreasonably, dearest Sydney. After all if it wasn't for you and old 'what's his name' out in the kitchen, the Museum wouldn't have the relic at all."  
  
With an effort, Nigel kept the fake sexy smile unwavering on Sydney's beautiful face. God, he hated that - nobody knew his name! Everyone of course knew Sydney's!  
  
"Exactly, Clarence, the Museum owes us, but they refused my request. I was wondering if you could talk to them for me?"  
  
"Delighted to do so!" muttered Clarence between chews, his face dripping with the juices of the suckling pig.  
  
'One pig is suckling another pig!' thought Nigel, somewhat sardonically. Anyway, this evening was worth it! Sydney and I are in! I just hope we can get the statue to reverse this before I have another period or wind up getting married!  
  
As he strode with all of Sydney's sexy, almost arrogant grace into the museum along with the real Syd the next day to meet with the curator again, Nigel was thinking 'It has really been a blast being Sydney most of the time. The respect I get is bloody wonderful!"  
  
Syd was wondering how to tell Nigel that 'he' was having an affair with Karen. He would find out soon enough if they got their bodies back! Anyway, it would be great to be back to being herself! Being demoted to assistant professor hadn't suited her at all!  
  
"Professor Fox and - I'm sorry... '"  
  
"Nigel Bailey" said Nigel though clutched teeth.  
  
"Of course, of course, your assistant."  
  
"Associate!"  
  
"Of course. Well, I am afraid, Professor Fox and Mr. Bailey, I bear bad news. The museum of course is forever in your debt for all the priceless relics you find for us, but the insurance company categorically refuses to let you or anyone else borrow the statue of Ram. I apologize, but there is really nothing we can do about it. It is completely and totally out of our hands."  
  
"Are you telling me that because of some stupid insurance policy, you can not lend us back the statue we rescued and donated to you - risking our very lives to do so?" asked Sydney, with steam coming out her ears, trying to keep tears from flowing.  
  
"ER - well yes. I'm afraid so"  
  
Without thinking Nigel reached toward and twisted the man's nose. He had suppressed a sudden urge to scratch the man's eyes out, but needed to do something to express his disappointment.  
  
"That hurt!" he squealed.  
  
"It was supposed to! Come on Sy... ahem, Nigel, let's go."  
  
They stormed out.  
  
"We need to calm down and think!" Sydney said.  
  
"Right. Let's go walk by the bloody statue again, maybe we can get it to do something."  
  
They approached it cautiously, knowing all too well what it was capable of doing!  
  
Again, Ram gazed at them with such limpid innocence that it set their teeth on edge.  
  
Sydney paused meditatively. "If we can't borrow Mr. Ram, I guess we'll just have to steal him!"  
  
"Steal it?" asked Nigel, his or rather Sydney's voice rising.  
  
"Steal it! Come on, Nigel, it's a just another relic hunt. Lets go see the head of security in this rat hole." On the way, they prepared what they would have to say and do to evade Museum security measures.  
  
'Some hunt...' thought Nigel. Stealing from a museum! How low they had sunk! He wondered if they would get ten or fifteen years at hard humiliating labor. At least he would be sent to a women's prison if they failed!  
  
"What an honor, Professor Fox and - ER -" said the Museum's head of security.  
  
"Nigel Bailey!" hissed Nigel.  
  
"Yes of course, your aide. What can we do for you, Professor Fox?"  
  
"I'm concerned about security for the statue of Ram we brought to the museum and so is the insurance company. We would like to examine the arrangements!" said Nigel from the script Sydney had given him earlier.  
  
"Of course, but I assure you it's all state of the art! No one could steal it."  
  
"There are broken display cases and empty frames all over the world that once contained priceless objects and pictures that, of course, could not be stolen." Sydney pointed out to the man with a bit of annoyance.  
  
"Well, yes, that's true, of course."  
  
Nigel and Sydney studied the arrangements. They unfortunately appeared very secure. Laser alarms, weight alarms, motion alarms! State of the art, indeed!  
  
Nigel sighed deeply and was annoyed to note the jerk's eyes X-ray his breasts as he took a breath! Men! It took an effort of will not to slap him silly. After taking many notes, he and Sydney left the Museum.  
  
On the way out to the Jag, two muggers jumped them. Sydney was quickly knocked down. Without thinking, Nigel spun around and kicked first one assailant in the gut and then the other in the head with blinding speed and precision. Down they went for the count. As Nigel stood guard over the indignant, embarrassed crooks (cold cocked by a woman, the guys in the slammer would really give them a hard time!), Sydney called the police.  
  
Later in the office, Nigel put an ice pack on the current Nigel's head. Even after weeks as each other, it was still an odd feeling to touch his own misplaced head with a feminine hand!  
  
Syd groaned. "This has been a god-awful day!" she said, holding her battered head and moaned again... "Nigel, did you just laugh at me?"  
  
"Of course not, Sydney!"  
  
"Then I think your ears may need a checkup. Those thugs may have damaged something…"  
  
But Sydney was wrong. Her ears were fine. She had just heard the very distant chuckle of Mr. Ram as he impossibly watched over them from the Museum many miles away. So far, these two had provided him with more entertainment than anyone else had for decades!  
  
  
  
To be continued soon…  
  
Part nine of our thrilling story coming soon,  
  
same Relic Time,  
  
same Relic Station… 


	9. The New Hunt

Ramifications 9 A New Hunt  
  
By Eric, and Caleb Jones  
  
On the way back from the disappointing trip to the museum Sydney grumbled about the inattentive and rough way that Nigel was driving her precious car. Nigel sighed with exasperation, his pert bosom heaving ever so slightly underneath his snug bra and blouse. With his eyes on the road, he failed to notice Sydney eyeing his current body with conflicting feelings of envy and rising sexual interest. Not for the first time had Sydney noticed how sexy her breasts were! Her skin was so soft and tanned! Looking at herself in a mirror hardly compared to her recent opportunity to see her sensuous body living and breathing next to her. Of course, her male hormones may have had an influence on her growing attentiveness to the female form, Sydney reasoned. At least the hormones in Nigel's body seemed a likely explanation for her sudden desire to touch her own body and make passionate love to it!  
  
When she no longer could look at her own reflection in a mirror and see a beautiful woman in the mirror whenever she wished, she had begun to realize how much she had lost in this strange metaphysical mishap. She had loved being a woman! "Damn that Ram!" she thought.  
  
Damn!" she said again, as Nigel swerved to avoid a dog crossing the street.  
  
"We've been though this before, Sydney. You never let me or ninety-nine percent of the world get within five feet of your car, let alone touch it! Remember, we decided to give the appearance that nothing has changed about us so stop whining about it. I HAVE to drive your car!"  
  
Sydney was indignant. She never whined. Nigel was the whiner in their team. Just because she possessed his body didn't mean she had acquired his other traits as well. But she bit her lip and put such thoughts aside - for now. They had far more important things to worry about than who should be driving HER car.  
  
"We need to make plans for breaking into the museum and getting that statue back into our hands! We have to get out of this crazy situation! It's awful!"  
  
Nigel glanced out of the corners at his now gorgeous eyes at Syd.  
  
"Are you serious? I thought you were just blowing off some steam back there! And just what do you mean it has been awful being me? Being you is no walk in the park, you know!" Nigel certainly wasn't looking forward to staying in Sydney's body long enough to suffer through another one of her periods again.  
  
Sydney ignored Nigel's whining comments. They just confirmed who the complainer was between the two of them, and it wasn't her despite the fact that the words came out of her own mouth!  
  
"I'm deadly serious, Nigel! Our minds were switched around when we last touched that thing, and obviously just being near it isn't going to make the idol work it's magic in reverse. Look, it's not a big deal. We have been retrieving relics for years. Now we are just retrieving one back for a second time. So what's the difference?"  
  
This was too much for Nigel. He pulled the car over. "What's the difference? I'll tell you what's the difference, Sydney – try ten years in a most unpleasant prison cell if we are caught!"  
  
"In some places we would have been shot on sight or had a hand cut off, if caught stealing, Nigel, remember that!  
  
He knew the dangers of a Relic hunt as well as Sydney after years of accompanying her on several dozen missions. "True, but at least we had the law on our side in most of those countries, Syd! In addition, we've never robbed one of the most well guarded museums in the world."  
  
"None of that really matters anyway, since I don't plan on being caught! What else are we supposed to do? Live the rest of our lives as each other?"  
  
Nigel paused. It flashed across his mind - not for the first time - that there were worse things than being the beautiful, famous Sydney Fox for the rest of his life if they failed to reverse the curse of the idol. That was hardly fair to Sydney, however. His own body was in good shape, but it was hardly a challenge for a Mr. Universe contest, whereas Sydney's body could give any beauty contestant a run for the crown!  
  
"Let's think about it for a moment, Sydney. Look, there is no guarantee that the bloody statue would swap us back even if we got our hands on it. Is there?"  
  
Sydney had to nod.  
  
"So, lets give it a little more time, maybe Ram will eventually do it? He knows we want to switch back, after all."  
  
"I'll think about it. But I am going to study the security and work up a plan in case that hunk of junk doesn't follow through and that's final!" She crossed her arms and stared out the window.  
  
Nigel was sure he could never have put such a determined look on his own face when he had been inside that body. He started the car again and drove back onto the road  
  
When they got back to the office, Nigel, the apparent Sydney Fox, went into 'her' office and Karen took the opportunity to plop down on Nigel's lap. She ran her fingers through 'his' hair. She wasn't sure why she found him so sexy these days but whatever it was he was doing to her, Karen hoped he kept doing it!  
  
"God, men are so easily aroused," thought Sydney, as her male body responded to Karen's presence. Without thinking, she reached around the girl and held her firmly about the waist. As Syd started to move one of 'his' hands higher, the phone rang and Karen cursed under her breath. She reluctantly got up and picked up the phone on her desk. It was of course a caller for Professor Fox, and she transferred it.  
  
"Sydney! James Willows here. We need help in Crete! Treasure hunters from all over the world have descended on us like vultures. A clue to the lost scepter and crown of King Minos has come to light. Most of these so- called relic hunters are incompetent or troublemakers. We need someone who can make sense of all this and I thought of you first. We need you… and bring your assistant - what's his name - "  
  
"Nigel Bailey!" gritted 'Sydney Fox'. He was getting tired of people forgetting who he really was. After all, he was having a tough enough time pretending to be Sydney as it was, without anyone apparently being able to remember his real name!  
  
"Oh, yes, Niles Navy- "  
  
"Nigel Bayweed! I mean Bailey! Nigel Bailey."  
  
'Great. Now I'm doing!' Nigel thought.  
  
"Never mind that, Sydney! We need you here at once! Tickets for the Concord will be ready for you. It leaves in two hours and a temporary diplomatic passport has been arranged so you won't need to go through most of the security checks. Your assistant can follow on the next regular flight."  
  
Nigel had to laugh at this. He couldn't resist agreeing as Sydney had done this to him on more than one occasion.  
  
In Sydney's bold yet feminine handwriting, Nigel took down the information.  
  
"Oh Nigel!" he called, opening the door. He narrowed his eyes. Was it his imagination or had Sydney and Karen stared at each other as if they were keeping a secret from him…?  
  
Nigel laughed as Sydney hit the roof about the plane schedules. At first she insisted that she take the Concorde, but saner thoughts prevailed after Nigel pointed out to her that the passport wouldn't get 'Nigel Bailey' far since it was made out in the name of Sydney Fox! Sydney growled, but she had to agree to go. She was all excited about the hunt - as usual. If it meant flying in the CARGO BAY, she would do it to rescue a relic and have an adventure!  
  
With less than two hours till boarding the Concorde, Nigel broke all speed laws going to Syd's home, packing for the trip, and then driving to the airport. The cops knew better than to flag down the famous Professor Fox. They could always pull her over and allow her to talk her way out of a ticket when she was returning from a hunt. Instead, they pulled up next to her and signaled her to follow them. The police proceeded to give her an escort into the airport, saving Nigel a lot of time.  
  
'This is the way to start a hunt…' Nigel thought as he was escorted through the crowd by a big, friendly policeman and placed at the beginning of the line to get Sydney's passport.  
  
"Thank you so much, Officer!" Nigel said with Sydney's sexiest voice. Another officer brought along the luggage and received another happy thank you from the gorgeous Sydney Fox. Their day couldn't get better after seeing the smile on her beautiful face!  
  
Nigel enjoyed the attention the passport gave him. It enabled him to swiftly board the Concorde as the beautiful Sydney Fox. He sat down in his assigned seat and crossed his sexy legs as he got comfortable, much to the pleasure of his fellow passenger, a French man, in the other seat. He sat back and relaxed. God, was this ever the way to travel. First class! And did they ever roll out the red carpet for him - or rather for Sydney. Well, he was Sydney for now and he might as well enjoy the benefits of being her while it lasted.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Meanwhile the real Sydney was grumping about traveling tourist on the night owl flight to her secretary turned girlfriend.  
  
"Never mind, lover, that flight just gives us more time to spend with each other! And in case you forgot, we are all alone for the rest of the day now that the boss lady is on her way!" purred Karen.  
  
Before Sydney could reply, Karen had pulled them both over to the couch and began to remove their clothing. Sydney occupied a male body and she was putty in Karen's skilled hands!  
  
Their activity caused Syd to be late in getting to the airport so she had to speed up while driving. Much to her annoyance, she was pulled over by the law. The officers ignored her sexiest smile and gave her a ticket! She had never gotten actual ticket before. It was an experience she wished she had avoided. The good news was that the ticket was written out in Nigel's name, and he would likely be the one to go to driving school, not her!  
  
After a second flight from Paris to Athens, several officials of the Greek government and Sydney's old friend James Willows met the apparent Professor Fox at the airport. They were very attentive to the beautiful woman Nigel appeared to be, going so far as to kiss his hand instead of shaking it as Nigel had expected. He had only dealt with American men so far and had forgotten how aggressive European men could get.  
  
During the limousine drive, Nigel was filled in on further developments. Out of the corner of his sharp eyes, Nigel caught a movement on the side of the road as they approached a turn in the road, and he spotted a glint of steel reflected in the moonlight. He flew over the front seat and wrenched the wheel over to the far right, away from the apparent ambush.  
  
"What the hell! " said Willows as the car lurched into a ditch. A rocket whizzed by where they would have been had Nigel failed to act so swiftly. In a flash, Nigel was out of the car and he catapulted himself off the roof of the limo on top of the would be assassins. Using Sydney's skilled reflexes and trained body instincts, he soon knocked their heads together.  
  
"I recognize these two assassins. They are members of the Mad Hungarian Gang!" swore Spiro, the head of the Greek police later when the two men were turned over to the authorities. "Our thanks, Miss Fox. Let me say it is privilege and a pleasure to welcome such a distinguished guest to our humble island. As for these thugs…" he turned to a sergeant and continued, "Take this men to the prison camp over the hill."  
  
"But sir, we have no prison camp – oh, yes, now I remember." He winked. "The one by the cemetery?"  
  
"Exactly!"  
  
"Then see to it at once!"  
  
"Thank goodness those assassins are going to be taken care of." Nigel said to James. "Now we can get back to business."` They got back inside the spacious limo and Nigel pored over the clues. What did they all mean? It was somewhere in the labyrinth – that much was certain. But the labyrinth had been well explored and documented over centuries. There had to be something more. The clues indicated there WAS more. But what could it be? He tossed his long hair away from his ear and called Sydney on her cell phone. After her grumbling about being squashed in-between a smelly kid and an old man with bad breath, she listened to all the pertinent data Nigel gave her.  
  
"What if there are TWO labyrinths, Nigel? Move that hand or lose it, kid! Sorry about that, Nigel, but that kid is really a pest. What if the labyrinth we think know may have only been used in public ceremonies to throw off the curious among the populace while the real one was located nearby in relative obscurity. Look, reread the myths of Adriana of Minos, Theseus, and the Minotaur, and I will do the same on the connecting flight. There may be a clue hidden in one or more of the ancient myths!"  
  
"But don't forget, Syd… ah, 'Nigel', we found what you thought was the Labyrinth on the mainland, remember - where the outcasts hid."  
  
"I've been thinking of that Nigel - I mean Sydney," she added in case anyone was listening. "What is more natural than for a people to copy their conquerors - it has happened throughout the ages, Israelites with the Egyptians, and of course the people conquered by the Romans tried to be more Roman than the Romans were! So the Athens could well have made their own Labyrinth!"  
  
"My god, you may be right!" He looked at something that had been troubling him. "The map of the sacred cave of Idaen on the southern slope of Mount Ida has some interesting anomalies."  
  
"Good thinking, Ni - Professor Fox. It is almost in the exact center or the heart of the Island. It's definitely worth looking into!"  
  
Never had Nigel felt so alive. If Sydney had been there, he could have kissed him- her! Is this what Sydney felt like when the hunt goes well? What a high!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
On arrival in Athens, Sydney learned from her excited guide how the beautiful Professor Fox had saved them all from assassination! It was all the man could talk about during the ride. She looked on Nigel with amazement. He was doing as well with her body as she could have done. Of course, she knew Nigel was helpful in a crisis or she wouldn't have had him tag a long with her on her prior adventures the past few years. She made her way through the half dozen men trying to get the attention of her former body and pulled Nigel into a private room where they could go over the maps and other clues. They compared notes on Grecian mythology and concluded they were of little help in confirming the presence of a second, original labyrinth.  
  
James Willows came through with the final clue needed, a geological map which indicated a second, nearly identical series of caves about a mile away from the underground structure assumed to have been the basis of the myths for so many centuries.  
  
Sydney and Nigel left to explore the new site with two tough, well armed solders to protect them from either any associates of the assassins or any other relic hunters that might be following them. They began to explore the sacred caves, untouched by human feet for millennia. The soldiers were uneasy.  
  
"The Gods may sleep, but they are still here!" The sergeant said simply when asked if anything was wrong by an observant Sydney.  
  
Sydney was about to respond by saying something about there being no such things as gods when she remembered that she wasn't even in her own body!  
  
Far away, Ram was remembering when he had been in Greece over three thousand years ago. The women of that island had been real babes! And so were some of the men by the time he had left the country. Now, what should he do about Sydney and Nigel?  
  
Ram laughed as inspiration struck and a wicked little plan began to form. Yes, that just might be the answer! He laughed again!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The two adventurers and the two soldiers explored the cave. At Sydney's suggestion, one of the guards trailed out string from a big ball of nylon string behind them to facilitate their return to the cave entrance. After half an hour of twists and turns they found nothing but empty caverns, just what one would expect from a series of caves in the area, yet something was NOT right.  
  
Sydney's polarized sunglasses fell off the top of his hair back over his eyes and Nigel impatiently pushed his currently long hair away from his eyes.  
  
"My GOD! " Nigel exclaimed with Sydney's matchless voice as he peered out of the sunglasses which fell across the bridge of his pert little nose.  
  
"What is it? Do you see something?" asked Sydney, hoping for a break in the hunt.  
  
For an answer, Nigel handed her the sunglasses. She put them on despite the snickers of the guards at the sight of the apparently male Sydney placing feminine styled glasses on Nigel's male face.  
  
Sydney could see an archway cut into the rock. Above it, and on it was a drawing of a head of a bull.  
  
"The royal sign of the Minotaur!"  
  
Soon Sydney had figured out how the door framed by the archway door was opened - you jumped over the bull's head and touched the head carved out above the door. Sydney was irritated. She couldn't do it with her clumsy male body. Wearing what Sydney thought was a triumphant smirk, Nigel, using Sydney's athletic body, did the leap. The door creaked open for the first time in an eon. They cautiously proceeded inside the long lost, true labyrinth!  
  
They explored the dusty interior for over an hour until they came across an ancient inscription carved into a wall. Nigel was able to translate the writing. It gave them clues to the maze's key and that helped Sydney discover the way to an underground throne room. The powerful lights from their lanterns lit up the gloom in a room which may not have been illuminated for thousands of years. There was a throne, of course, and on top of the seat were a scepter and a crown. They ran up. A puzzled Sydney noticed that there was no sign of dust or cobwebs, and she decided to leave the ancient symbols of royalty alone until she could determine if it was safe to retrieve them.  
  
Nigel also paused as some sort of sixth sense warned him of danger. Perhaps it was the famed feminine intuition warning him in his currently female state, it seemed a creditable possibility.  
  
The two explorers heard the too familiar sound of a bolt sliding into place in a rifle. The sergeant and the other soldier guarding them were grinning at them with a look of evil in their eyes and rifle barrels pointing at them both.  
  
"The Mad Hungarian Gang will give up a cool million dollars for those 'relics' of yours. Thank you for finding them for us. Now, hand them over!"  
  
"You mean you would give up your country's National treasures for tainted money?" asked Sydney.  
  
He nodded. "Ain't it the truth! Too bad about the two of you - we appreciate you finding it, little fellow, and the lady is beautiful, but business is business…" He brought up his gun. The relics, please.  
  
"No." Sydney said, stepping in front of Nigel in case they shot him. "If you want them so bad, then you can get them yourselves. We won't have any part of this grave robbing scheme."  
  
"Fine, you will still get a bullet either way."  
  
Both men each picked up one of the ancient relics and began to move back out of the throne. They raised their rifles and were about to shoot when lightning arced somehow through the underground cavern and struck the metal barrels of the criminal's weapons. They fell to the floor, dead. Steam rose from the fried bodies.  
  
Sydney was about to replace the relics on the throne when they heard the sound of another gun being readied for firing.  
  
A man they had never seen before stood in the archway with another rifle pointed at them. He held up a handful of string. "Nice of you to leave such simple directions to the treasure, my friends. I expected these two to have trouble with someone with your reputation, Miss Fox, so I followed you. I didn't expect you to murder my men, however."  
  
"We didn't do any such thing!" Nigel said to the man.  
  
"That's right, Sydney!" the real Sydney added as she moved into a better position to make a move.  
  
But the man made the usual mistake of thinking Sydney was just a beautiful sexy woman. He watched the male Sydney and kept his weapon aimed at her chest. He only took his gaze away from the beautiful woman for a second at most, but that was all the time Nigel needed. The stranger was totally surprised to see 'the woman' sailing through the air. The thief had his chest kicked by an expert and down he went with the breath knocked from his body. He managed to get back to his feet but 'Sydney' karate chopped his neck and he went down, out like a light. The real Sydney ran forward and grabbed the fallen weapon.  
  
"Good work, Nigel, I am glad to see I haven't lost my touch, even with you operating the 'equipment'!"  
  
They heard an apologetic cough behind them. 'Oh no', they thought – 'not some more of the gang of Mad Hungarians?' They turned to face yet another thief and gasped. Standing before them, was a giant - a giant with the body of a man and the head of a bull.  
  
"Yes, I am the Minotaur! I've been looking after the labyrinth for many long, dull years." He held up what looked to be a lamb skin cloth. "It's a damned hard place to keep clean. Very dusty, and full of spiders! By Zeus do I hate Spiders! They're nasty, creepy, crawling things, always making more work for me. Athena always had a grudge against me and Crete."  
  
"My god!"  
  
The bullheaded man-beast shook his huge head regretfully. "I wish! No, I am just a monster." He sighed. "Some beings have all the luck! But me, I get stuck with this head on a human body! "  
  
They couldn't believe their senses! Sydney and Nigel looked at each other. A monster who served as a cave maid, who whined about his looks and his job! Unbelievable! Who could believe this?  
  
The Minotaur believed he was more than a myth, that much was certain! "Would you mind telling me what's happened in the last eight hundred years? I am a little behind on the news of the day. Who came out on top, the Christians or the Moslems? "  
  
"Why the last eight hundred?"  
  
"Oh, some other people came in here about 800 years ago and we had a nice long talk. Come on be a sport, fill me in. "  
  
So Nigel did. The Minotaur nodded sagely from time to time. "How little human nature changes. It's still the same old story, fighting others for love and glory or gold and greed."  
  
Nigel and Sydney looked at each other. He may be a monster but the Minotaur was rather wise.  
  
The Minotaur stretched his bulging muscles on his ten-foot frame as he surveyed the throne room.  
  
"Well it's been really pleasant meeting the both of you. I do love company. Oh well, a job is a job." Without warning, he broke the neck of the treacherous third thief that was just regaining consciousness. "The big guy on the right is a virgin so the rules say I can eat him later. It will be a nice to have a meal. I can't eat the rest of you. I hate that rule, but rules are rules, otherwise we would just be savages, wouldn't we? I am afraid I have to kill you both as well. Too bad neither one of you are virgins." He looked Sydney's body over with pleasure and Nigel shivered under the spotlight. "I am not surprised you are no longer one, my dear, you are absolutely good enough to eat. Oops! I didn't mean that the way it sounded. This language you speak has many interesting multiple meanings!" He looked at Nigel's body. "You, I am a bit surprised at. Women find that scrawny little body of yours appealing?" The Minotaur shrugged his massive shoulders which could outfit a dozen Chicago Bears linebackers.  
  
"You're going to kill us?" said Sydney, surprised.  
  
"But I thought you liked us?" said Nigel.  
  
"I do. I like you both very much! You are both nice, intelligent, well mannered, well-educated people. What's not to like, I ask you? No, it's just part of my job here to protect the crown and scepter. You wouldn't want to put a monster out of work would you?"  
  
"But we didn't take the scepter. They did!" Nigel pointed to the three dead men.  
  
"You led them here, so I have to kill you. The details are unimportant."  
  
Both Nigel and Sydney thought they were caught up in a nightmare. Ram was a lamb next to this giant monster! As their host advanced, Sydney brought up one of the abandoned rifles, but it wouldn't fire.  
  
The Minotaur shook his head. "Naughty, Naughty - no cheating. That's the rules!"  
  
Nigel whipped out Sydney's crossbow from his purse and fired. It hit the Minotaur right in the chest.  
  
"Hey, that almost hurt!" He advanced on them again. Desperately, Sydney dodged behind the throne. Inspiration and desperation helped her devise a plan.  
  
"Nigel, remember how we got in?"  
  
"Right!" Nigel gathered Sydney's body and leaped over the Minotaur's horns. Grabbing them, he twisted behind the creature and kicked the Minotaur in the back. The monster was shoved into the throne.  
  
"Good move!" the monster said admiringly. Sydney threw her shirt over the face of the monster and ran past him out of the throne room, followed closely behind by Nigel. The minotaur stood up and began to advance on the lovely woman and the small man again, but again Nigel took to the air. As he did so, Syd called out, "Take the bull by the horns!"  
  
Nigel did so by hitting the symbol of the creature above the archway and the door came sliding back down. Gravity made it fall a lot faster than it had withdrawn into the ceiling, and the two adventurers heaved sighs of relief.  
  
Nigel panted from his exertions and Sydney couldn't help but notice the rise and fall of her curvaceous former chest again. Wow! Her old body was really something else. And currently someone else! Then Sydney couldn't help but think of Karen's body somehow, and blushed.  
  
"Lets go home, Nigel!"  
  
"Sure, Syd. I just wish we had been successful in getting the relics out of the Throne room …  
  
"I didn't want to brag, but while I was hiding behind the throne coming up with the plan, I figured I might as well take the relics if we were going to die for them anyway!  
  
Nigel looked at the door blocking the Minotaur with relief. "For a monster, he was really a rather good fellow, don't you think, Sydney!"  
  
Sydney grinned. It was true in a weird way. "Myths come to life. It's the stuff which dreams …" She paused and they stared at the sturdy door that kept otherwise certain death away. "… and nightmares are made from." Nigel sighed. What a day!  
  
Sydney smiled. She handed the two ancient artifacts over to Nigel, and they began the long trek back to civilization!  
  
  
  
  
  
To be continued soon! 


	10. Unexpected Surprises After The Hunt...

Ramifications  
  
By Caleb and Eric  
  
Chapter 10: Unexpected Surprises After The Hunt  
  
After their triumphant return from the caverns with the ancient relics they had retrieved, Nigel and Sydney were the toast of Crete - indeed the toast of the entire nation of Greece! A major part of the country's matchless heritage had been re-discovered and old myths were proven to be based upon fact. Nigel and Sydney felt it best to keep the Minotaur's existence a secret. Otherwise, the Minotaur would likely be hunted down, meticulously dissected, and the remains of his body would probably be stuffed and put on exhibit along with the Minoan crown Jewels. While neither Syd nor Nigel was fond of the creature since it had, of course, tried to kill them, neither was prepared to make the creature a target for anyone else.  
  
A grateful Greek Government awarded the brave and beautiful Professor Fox $500,000 dollars. As usual, 'she' passed 20 percent to Nigel for his assistance. Of course, after their exchange of souls, which one of them was actually getting the lions share of the reward was a still a matter that remained unsettled. However, the check was made out in the name of Sydney Fox and the bank would only cash the check if Professor Fox gave it to them, and that meant Nigel got the money. Nigel, for now, was the famous Professor Fox, while Sydney was her lowly, shy assistant. The first thing Sydney did with Nigel's usual share of the money was to buy some new clothes for Nigel's body. The second was to buy herself an airline ticket so she could fly back with Nigel on the Concord! At least she was able to cash in the return coach class ticket she had been offered.  
  
Nigel looked at Sydney with surprise when she showed up in the seat next to him on the Concorde, but he was even more shocked by how much the new clothes she had bought for his former body improved his natural good looks.  
  
On the plane, they talked in ancient Egyptian to each other to avoid being overheard. Neither wanted to be overheard talking about being in the wrong bodies! To Nigel's dismay, but hardly his surprise, Sydney was still determined to steal the statue of Ram! He wanted his own body back as much as she wanted hers, probably more so since the clock was ticking and he would be facing another period all too soon if he didn't become a man again real soon!  
  
Upon their arrival back home, the apparent Sydney Fox was given a royal welcome! TV cameras and newspaper photographers preceded a flock of reporters swarming like ants at a picnic as they arrived at the airport! It seemed a bit excessive even after their successful mission, but there was a good reason for all the massive attention. Coming forward from a security checkpoint was none other than the President of the United States himself!  
  
Nigel glanced out of the corner of his eyes and saw Sydney burning. An egg would fry on her head. Obviously, she expected the President to ignore her like everyone else did. Better her be ignored then him! He wasn't sure Sydney realized the extent that he had been treated like an inferior when they both held similar degrees and knowledge in their chosen field. Sydney's beauty always gave her an edge! Lately she seemed to be taking advantage of it! Nigel couldn't resist when inspiration struck.  
  
He turned to his former body and spoke with the same innocent style Sydney had used on him until recently, Sydney never saw it coming. "Oh Nigel, it looks like the President wants to congratulate me. Would you be a dear and take care of the luggage for me while you get your bags?"  
  
Sydney's anger flamed high. But what could she do? She jealously watched Nigel inside her beautiful body being embraced by the President while she, the real Sydney Fox, was reduced to little more than a baggage handler. She turned away just before it became a little more interesting.  
  
Nigel was shocked when the President's hand strayed down to his rear and gave him a good squeeze there! He thought the last President's troubles would have kept this guy on the straight and narrow, but apparently it was true. 'All men are pigs!' he thought, as he tried to smile and ignore the presidential advance.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
At the office, Karen waited for 'Sydney' to go inside her office to answer the many congratulatory phone calls and then she jumped on 'Nigel' and, pressing her sexy body up against him, kissed him thoroughly. The little man sure knew how to kiss a woman, she thought, and then she giggled as a part of Nigel pressed back into her. "I knew you would be glad to see me, big boy!"  
  
She took in his new appearance - the really cool and expensive clothes must have been bought to impress his new girlfriend. 'The darling man is trying to please me,' she thought smugly. 'And doing a fabulous job of it!'  
  
Sydney found herself blushing at the attention from such a beautiful young woman. She had never had any lesbian interests before but it was amazing the influence a new body could have on one's sexuality! She never blushed as a woman! However, she never had been Nigel before. The mail came with a bunch of telegrams praising success of the latest relic hunt. 'Saved by the mailman!' Sydney wryly thought as Karen let her loose and went back to work and began to sort out the mail.  
  
"Special delivery, registered, letter for Nigel Bailey! That you, young man?", the mailman asked.  
  
Sydney shrugged, automatically signed Nigel's name with Nigel's handwriting and opened it. She read rapidly. "My god, Nig- I mean my lunatic cousins have died climbing while naked and I'm now the Earl of Sandwich!"  
  
"Congratulations, Nigel!" Karen said, kissing him, and feigning surprise.  
  
"I must tell - Sydney!" 'He' said, breaking away with much difficulty from the affectionate woman.  
  
Syd burst in while Nigel was on the phone.  
  
"We need to talk - NOW!"  
  
"Mike, I'll call you back soon. I have an emergency." Nigel turned to Syd. "This better be very important! I was just on the phone with Michael Douglas. He wants to produce a motion picture of our latest exploit. Catherine Zeta Jones will play me and they think they can get Paulie Shore to play your role."  
  
"Nigel, get a hold yourself! I'm Sydney Fox, not you!"  
  
"Well yes, intellectually I guess that's the case, but I did the fighting in the last adventure, didn't I? I trapped the Minotaur, didn't I?"  
  
"I suppose so. But never mind that! Nigel! Look at this letter I - you just received!"  
  
Nigel read and raised Sydney's beautiful thin eyebrows with surprise. He whistled just like Syd usually did when really shocked.  
  
"My god your - I mean my cousins are dead! I can't believe it! I thought they were too dumb to die! MY god, one of us is now the Earl of Sandwich!"  
  
"Sorry for your loss."  
  
"Sorry? Why are you sorry? Oh yes, you couldn't know. I hated my cousins! They tormented and beat me all during my youth. Their father also was a SOB. He died last year illegally hunting elephants in Africa - he forgot to load his rifle and was trampled to death."  
  
"Well then, I suppose a celebration is in order."  
  
"Go ahead Syd. You do it for me. I've been invited to talk to the museum and all the important members and board of directors about our latest adventures."  
  
Syd's eyes lit up! "You might be able to persuade them to let go of Ram! Especially if you wear a really sexy dress. Most of the board members are past the age of retirement!"  
  
"My thoughts exactly! I know just the perfect outfit in your closet! Ram will be ours, I'm certain of it!"  
  
'I hope so, Nigel…' Sydney thought. 'Or else I put plan B into action. And B stands for Break-in!'  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
So Nigel drove over to Sydney's home, took a long bath and then dressed up in Sydney's sexiest evening gown. 'Sydney looks GREAT!' Nigel thought as he examined his sexy curves in the full-length mirror. No longer troubled by high heels, he drove off to meet the movers and shakers of the city.  
  
At the same time, the apparent Nigel celebrated his rise to the peerage of Britain with an eager Karen. Sydney would have been suspicious of Karen, knowing how she needed money for tuition, if Karen hadn't started her romance with 'Nigel' well before she heard the news today. Again, Sydney forgot, perhaps conveniently so, that Nigel's body capacity for alcohol was less than she was used to, and got drunk. One thing led to another...  
  
Nigel in Sydney's beautiful body enjoyed the acclaim. He was the belle of the ball, the toast of the City!  
  
After about an hour of sweet-talking the top board members, it was finally time to get down to the business he and Sydney wanted to discuss. "Now, about the loan of the Statue of Ram back to my department for a quick analysis? I hope you have reconsidered!" Nigel cooed to the old men with all the power of Sydney's sexy body.  
  
Perhaps the real Sydney could have pulled it off, but the recently feminized Nigel apparently lacked some of the feminine wiles a woman born would have used. "I'm very sorry, Professor Fox. I knew you would ask, and I did my best to persuade them, but the insurance people absolutely refused to budge. In fact, they insisted I step up security. There have been rumors that thieves are after the Ram relic. These criminals apparently believe it may have magical powers!" He roared with laughter. "Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous, my dear? Magic, indeed!"  
  
Nigel forced a smile to Syd's luscious full lips. "Yes, it's a real knee- slapper!" He drew close to the man and thrust his bosom under the man's nose. "Isn't there anything you can do to help me?"  
  
"I'm afraid not, my dear. They were perfectly clear. No exceptions! Perhaps you wouldn't mind looking over the new precautions before you leave, however?" he asked diffidently. "The insurance company asked if you would as a favor."  
  
Nigel was indignant. "You mean they refuse to do me a favor and want to me to do one for them instead?" Nigel was furious, but managed to keep most of it from showing.  
  
"Well - yes - now that you put it that way, it does seem rather impertinent of them. I'll tell them you refuse."  
  
Nigel got a hold of Sydney's emotions. Information about the updated security arrangements could keep him and Sydney out of jail if she went through with her plans to steal Mr. Ram. "No, I'll do it. We can't let anger rule our judgment."  
  
Everyone was fawning and praising, and so Nigel managed to enjoy the rest of the evening. 'It is a far cry from my usual lot!' Nigel thought, smiling although the heels were murdering his delicate feet! Still they made his legs look great! He took them off while checking out the museum security arrangements afterwards, though. One of the security guards seemed rather upset about something. The older, burly man seemed on the verge of tears every time he passed by a mirrored surface.  
  
Nigel took numerous mental notes and wrote them down on a pad in his purse as soon as he was walked back to Sydney's car. He didn't want to forget a single detail. He called Sydney but there was no answer at his former apartment. Sydney obviously partied harder than he did when he had that body. He hoped they didn't switch back until after the hangover went away. He wanted his body back in healthy, sober condition!  
  
Sydney had indeed drunk too much and she woke up with more than a hangover. She woke up in bed with Karen. 'This is getting to be a bad habit!' Sydney thought. 'Or at least a habit! It's really not that bad!" She kissed the beautiful blonde's face and Karen smiled as she woke up to the face she was starting to love! He needed a shave she thought, as she kissed Sydney back  
  
Impossibly, the stone lips of a certain ancient statue moved and formed a smile.  
  
  
  
to be continued... 


	11. Hunting for British Royalty!

Ramifications   
By Caleb and Eric  
  
It's our story but their characters, folks, thus the story is free.   
No unauthorized reposting please.  
Now, on with the show!  
  
Ramifications 11   
Hunting for British Royalty!  
  
The next morning Nigel came in with a happy smile on his soft lips and it wasn't due to the lipstick he was wearing. There was a spring in his step - not only was it great waking up feeling wonderful from all the attention from the state's movers and shakers of society and government last night, but the press coverage in the morning newspaper was stupendous! 'Sydn… I mean I am more famous than the former Sydney was before the great body exchange we underwent!' Nigel contemplated his borrowed success while reading the headlines and channel surfing through the morning news shows on TV.   
  
Every paper and local news channel mentioned the triumphs of their successful hunt for relics in Crete and most highlighted the story with pictures of the beautiful Professor Fox taken when Nigel and Sydney arrived back in the states. Nigel recorded them all, especially the coverage of the embrace by the President! He knew the President was beloved, but someone must have noticed the man's hand on Nigel's succulent rear end! Not one station mentioned the President feeling him up! The man could do no wrong in the eyes of the press but Nigel knew better! At least the pictures were flattering and did justice to his current body.  
  
In his euphoria over the positive reports, Nigel didn't notice the guilty starts of Sydney and Karen when he arrived at the office.   
  
The telephone rang. It was for Nigel, so Sydney of course had to take it.  
  
"Roderick Stanley here. Nigel, old chap, or should I say Lord Sandwich, we were surprise not to hear from you about your inheritance, but upon reading this morning's newspapers I can see you were very busy with that relic hunting business down in Greece! Helping the famous Professor Fox with her adventures in Crete must of course take precedence to your personal business. She must be absolutely wizard to kill three murderous thieves and find a treasure like that!"  
  
Sydney was torn between annoyance and pride. Nigel had done quite well, but she had come up with the plan to trap the Minotaur and she had rescued the relics as well, not Nigel.   
  
She reluctantly agreed with the man. "She certainly is!"  
  
"Well, you really need to come back to England now to officially claim the title - by tomorrow at the absolute latest, old boy. There are endless items on the agenda. What with receiving the inheritance, your investiture, meeting the queen - you know, all the usual sort of bother."  
  
"I understand." Sydney acknowledged, with a sinking feeling. What was she going to do? "I will call you with the flight number."  
  
"Excellent, Lord Sandwich. It's going to be a rather difficult adjustment calling you that - I've called you Nigel ever since you were a pint sized little chap in knickers and I was the young family solicitor."  
  
Roderick Stanley wasn't the only one to be discomforted by the use of the British title. Sydney felt even weirder being called Lord Sandwich than she did being called Nigel. After nearly two weeks, she was used to others calling her by that name. Being part of British royalty was a new experience, and one she would prefer to avoid. However, Nigel had commitments and since she was currently force to take his place…   
  
"I wish you would call me Nigel, Mr. Stanley. "  
  
"Very kind of you, Lord…Nigel. I am honored. Permit me to say it will be far nicer to work for you and with you instead with your late cousin. It was most trying getting him out of scrapes. Like the time he pinched the late Princess, bless her soul! Very bad form, that was! I had to draft three separate apologies to her highness, the Prince, and the Queen herself! He wasn't really a bad bloke, but one to let his emotions rule his intellect. Still, he deserved a better fate than the one he received. I will miss him."  
  
"As will I." Sydney's head was in a whirl. Somehow, she and Nigel had to change back before tomorrow so Nigel could claim his title, but how? I guess I can delay going back with some sort of an excuse. Absently, and full of confusing thoughts, she headed towards her former office to explain the new agenda. She didn't notice a calculating look on Karen's beautiful face.  
  
Nigel heard him out and then said.  
  
"Sydney, I want you to go overseas for me. I would be an utter disaster claiming my title looking like this!" Nigel waved a hand over his bosom and his wide hips. "You will do much better. They are expecting the man I used to be, not the woman I currently am. The title can only be given to a male heir. The beastly relatives would never accept me. You can put them in the their place, and arrange my affairs much better than I could."  
  
Sydney was surprised. "I not am sure about that Nigel."  
  
"Well I am! They would have me tied up in knots. I would make myself look like a fool. "Her voice took on a more commanding aspect." Look, Sydney I did the weekend with your beau, the least you can do is do the inheritance trip for me."  
  
Sydney could not help but see the justice of this. "It's not like I have much choice. They are expecting a British man, not an American woman! They aren't likely to give the title to you as you are now, even if they hold you in high regard after our hunt in Crete. I'll go. I guess it's a good thing I upgraded your wardrobe."  
  
Nigel laughed. " Sydney, I know you will make me look good no matter what you wear! You are a classy lady… even if you are currently a man."  
  
"Why thank you Nigel. I think that's the nicest thing you ever said to me." Sydney kissed him on the cheek and they both blushed. It was the closest contact they had had since being tied chest to chest by Indians in Peru on a relic hunt months ago.  
  
They went over whom Sydney would meet in England. Sydney took copious notes, and they sent Karen out to fetch Nigel's family album from his apartment so she would have a visual image to go along with Nigel's descriptions. By the end of the afternoon, Sydney was well prepared. It was a little like a relic hunt she told herself, only she was hunting a British title instead of a relic. Preparation was the name of the game for both! Later, Karen, with misty eyes, kissed Sydney's manly lips.  
  
"I will miss you something dreadful, Nigel sweetheart!"  
  
Poor Sydney was all confused. How to deal with Karen when if things worked out the way she hoped, Nigel would be reoccupying his own body very soon. She knew how to handle a relationship with a man but had never been with a woman before becoming a man. "I will miss you too, Karen. I wish you could go with me but…" she added, trying to be polite to the woman who had become her sexual partner.  
  
Sydney was startled when Karen flung her arms around her, nearly knocking her off her feet.   
  
"Oh, Nigel, thank you, thank you, thank you! I will be gladly come with you! I am so proud you want to take me to introduce me as your fiancée."  
  
Sydney couldn't believe what Nigel's ears had heard! "Come with me? To Great Britain?" she muttered weakly.  
  
"No need to ask me twice, darling, I already said I would go with you! I am so happy you want me to be with you. The woman who loves you should be by your side when you become royalty!" Karen said deftly, pretending it was Nigel's idea and not hers to tag along with him. She had already accelerated their relationship into a proposal and Nigel hadn't corrected her yet. It was time to use the rest of her ammunition and cement the deal.   
  
"I will be very proud to be the future Lady Sandwich. I can't believe our baby will be a future Earl!"  
  
Sydney gulped. "Our baby?" When did she fall down that Rabbit hole? "You mean a child we might have someday in the future, right?" Sydney prayed that was what she meant!  
  
"No, Nigel, darling! I am pregnant with our child. I was going to wait until we were alone tonight to tell you back at your place, but its true. The test came out positive. My gynecologist confirmed the results of the home testing kit today. The rabbit died!"  
  
Sydney felt sympathy with the unknown rabbit! She would have wished she were dead, but that god Ram was probably still listening, and might have made that wish a reality as well. Nigel is going to kill me when he finds out I made him father, she thought. But maybe not! He's always had the hots for Karen ever since she started working here. He just hasn't done anything about asking her out. He probably thinks it wouldn't be appropriate for the office, or that it could be misinterpreted as sexual harassment by Karen. Sydney had never been more embarrassed in her life. Not even when she had to dance naked in the Bordio tribe's fertility dance to get a relic she wanted. As hard as it was to believe, she was going to be a father!  
  
"What am I going to tell Nigel?" she wondered… and when? She decided to save it until after the trip.  
  
While Sydney sat stunned and bemused, Karen leaned forward, smiled and kissed him on the check. She deftly removed Nigel's wallet and took a credit card from his wallet.   
  
"You make the reservations for two, darling. I'll do some shopping. I know you don't want the future Countess of Sandwich to disgrace you in England by wearing last year's fashions."  
  
Sydney watched her leave with rueful admiration. She looked fantastic for an expectant mother. My god, can women manipulate men! In less than ten minutes, Sydney had gone from being a bachelor to being a future father with a fiancée! If she ever got her body back, she promised herself she would never manipulate a man again!  
  
In a castle in England, two of Nigel's remaining relatives were talking. "Nigel Bailey is on his way. What a dear, dim, inoffensive bloke. We will have no trouble with him."  
  
Lady Catherine Frothingam spoke. "Absolutely right, Basil, my love. Nigel will do what we tell him. He was always self-effacing and lacking in confidence."  
  
"A word of caution, we must bear in mind Nigel has been associating with Professor Fox, that aggressive, take no prisoners relic hunter for the last three years. Some of her ruthless American tendencies may have tarred the lad." cautioned Sir FitzWilliam Wooster.  
  
"Nonsense!" decried the maternal Lady Catherine.  
  
No one dared contradicted her.  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
  
At London's Heathrow airport, Roderick Stanley and a gaggle of Nigel's remaining relatives met Sydney and Karen.  
  
"Ah, you must be Karen, the future Lady Sandwich. We talked on the telephone. It was so thoughtful of you to call and tell us of your engagement. Nigel is a lucky fellow!"  
  
Sydney gave Karen a dirty look. 'The girl is really boxing me - I mean Nigel into getting married!'  
  
As they approached the estate, Karen couldn't believe the size of the castle and the grounds. She had stars in her eyes. 'Someday soon, I will be mistress of all this! Unbelievable!'   
  
Both the beauty and the antiquity of the old castle amazed Sydney and Karen.   
  
Sir FitzWilliam Wooster and Lady Catherine Frothingam insisted that Nigel sign the documents transferring the title to him as soon as possible so the estate could run smoothly. Roderick Stanley prepared the necessary papers in the study while Sydney and Karen were shown to their rooms. Both were impressed by the sheer size of their accommodations. They didn't make rooms like the ones in the castle anymore. Indeed, they hadn't made rooms like that in several centuries.  
  
Unbeknownst to Roderick, Lady Frothingam slipped into the study after he finished his work in the study and exchanged some of the documents he had set out on the antique desk with similar papers she and Sir Wooster had prepared in advance. Subtle changes would insure that neither Nigel nor Karen, or any of their offspring would ever be more than a figurehead. Wooster and Frothingam would be the true power behind the new Earl.  
  
Lady Catherine closed the door behind her moments before her accomplice would have been forced to distract Nigel. She walked over by Sir Wooster and greeted Nigel as he came down the stairs with Karen. Roderick finished making a call to his office and escorted them all into the study.   
  
"Please sit down at the desk, Nigel. It, this castle, and all the Sandwich estate will belong to you as soon as you sign these papers!"   
  
Karen, Lady Catherine and Sir Wooster all offered Sydney pens. The sooner he signed the papers, the better they would all feel.   
  
"You need to sign here, and here, and it will all be yours, Nigel!" Roderick told Sydney.  
  
Sydney had learned long ago to read the fine print before she signed anything. Judging by the anticipation on the faces of Lady Frothingam and Sir Wooster, she had a hunch something weird was going on. She read each document carefully. While she wasn't a lawyer, she had a facile mind and soon spotted the bogus paragraphs which would give control of the estate to Wooster and Frothingam.  
  
"What are you trying to do, Mr. Stanley? The wording of this page gives control of everything over to these two!" She pointed over to the shocked faces of Nigel's relatives.  
  
Roderick looked over the papers. "These are not the papers I put out to be signed, Nigel. Someone has replaced them with these phony pages, and judging by whom these pages say the new recipients are I believe we know exactly who did the deed!   
  
Roderick turned towards Sir Wooster and Lady Frothingam. They cringed as he reached into his jacket and pulled out . . . a cellphone. They sighed with relief. They had expected a weapon! But when Roderick used it to call in the authorities, they quivered with fear! Lady Catherine fainted, while Sir Wooster ran out the door!  
  
Sydney was a woman whose middle name ought to be action and she started to run after the errant relative, but she stopped when Roderick suggested restraint.  
  
"Don't worry, Nigel. He won't get far. I drove us here, remember. I have the keys, so he will have quite a walk just to get off the castle grounds. The Bobbies will have him in custody before he can get safely away."  
  
"Well, good show, Roderick! I guess we just wait for them to arrive, then."  
  
"Not at all, lad. Gather up a couple of the staff to fill for these two as witnesses. I'm sure this lovely lady would volunteer but we need a resident of the country." Karen smiled at the brave solicitor and accepted the compliments. Of course, she would have volunteered to be a witness! She had been too busy being relieved that Nigel hadn't found out how she had kept the first word of his inheritance from him. Grateful, she promised herself to be the best wife any woman could be from that moment on.   
  
Roderick continued, "Meanwhile, I will print out fresh copies of the papers for you to sign off of my laptop computer. We'll be ready to go in about five minutes, Nigel!"   
  
Sydney was surprised by the way her - or rather Nigel's - relatives thought they could put one over Nigel. Not on her watch, though! After the papers were signed, over the recovered Catherine's objections, the authorities brought Sir Wooster in for identification. His clothing was torn and covered with foliage, and upon entering the study again, he begged the new Earl of Sandwich for forgiveness to no avail.   
  
When Sydney got through chastising them, Lady Catherine had to be hospitalized for a nervous breakdown and Sir Wooster felt like a dragon had come in, chewed them up, and spit them out!  
  
Upon hearing the recount of events, the rest of Nigel's nearest and dearest were horrified at 'his' willfulness and independence as much as they were shocked by the criminal actions of Catherine and FitzWilliam.  
  
"It's almost like the dear boy we used to know has become another person entirely," said Basil, not realizing how close to the truth he was!  
  
"That blasted Professor Fox has changed the lad out of all recognition. Even his accent isn't as British as it once was. He speaks like an American now!" said James, another member of the Wooster part of the family tree and FitzWilliam's cousin.  
  
"I don't understand why he is marrying that dreadful America girl!" complained Lady Catherine's sister, Constance Frothingam.  
  
"If you were a man you would understand, my dear Constance! Sydney Fox is very sexy! Or perhaps I should say Foxy!" said Basil with a broad smile.  
  
The lawyer part of Roderick Stanley was surprised at Nigel's solid grasp of the ins and outs of his inherited estate, and by his decisiveness. The dear boy had certainly matured during his adventures overseas. It was a shame that poor Nigel had been trapped into a most unequal alliance with his fiancée, but he had to admit that the beautiful Karen was an absolute stunner. Boys would be boys, after all, even when they became men. If it didn't work out, there was always divorce. He made a mental note to advise the new Earl to get a pre-nuptial agreement just in case.  
  
When 'Nigel' and Karen were finally introduced to the Queen, her Majesty thought much the same thing. However, she found handsome Nigel, the new Lord Sandwich, a charming and most intelligent young man with much more poise than she had expected. Most academic types were so gauche and usually boring! But not the new Earl of Sandwich! He knew how to charm a woman! The Queen was pleased to welcome him into royal society!  
  
In the master bedroom in the castle later that night, Karen couldn't stop gushing about the official ceremony! "I can't believe it! I can't believe it! I got to meet the queen! The freaking QUEEN of England!"  
  
She hugged her lover. "I owe it all to you, my darling Nigel! I wonder how I can thank you for all this?" Then she covered his face with kisses, saying ever so sweetly, "Oh, wait a moment, I have a pretty good idea..."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Seven days later, and after several more ceremonies of varying importance, they returned to the states. Nigel was supposed to take up residence as the Earl of Sandwich in England soon and he needed to clear up his affairs in America. His most important affair cuddled and held his hand on the flight back. Inside the mind of the new Earl, Sydney was wondering, 'What are we going to do, Nigel? Everything is a hopeless mess! If we don't switch back, I will have to live out my life as Nigel Bailey. I want to be Sydney Fox again! I think I will knock Ram's head off his tiny stone shoulders if we are stuck like this forever!'   
  
That thought cheered Sydney immensely, but Mr. Ram was somewhat less amused...   
  
  
  
To be concluded soon in Chapter Twelve! 


	12. Getting Rammed! The Conclusion!

Presenting the conclusion of...  
  
Ramifications  
  
By Caleb and Eric  
  
  
  
It's our story but their characters, folks, thus the story is free.  
  
No unauthorized reposting please.  
  
Now, on with the show!  
  
  
  
Chapter 12 - Getting Rammed!  
  
  
  
While Sydney was busy in Great Britain with Nigel's greedy relatives, it had been a far less interesting week for Nigel as he continued his masquerade as Sydney. After several weeks, he was reluctantly growing accustomed to wearing panties and bras and a nice dress, and even put on a bit of makeup before going to the office. He was a beautiful woman and he wanted to look his best while he filled in for Sydney. After all, he expected the same care for his body and appearance from her while she was forced to be him by Mr. Ram. Being a female was still somewhat strange on occasion, but for Nigel, it was becoming somewhat routine to be the famous Sydney Fox. The thought worried him on occasion, usually after he did something totally feminine, like putting on a bra in the morning, or admiring the way a nice pair of earrings enhanced the rest of his outfit after touching up his lipstick in the ladies room at the University.  
  
  
  
Since Nigel and Karen were both away on personal leave, the University had supplied temporary help to keep the Department of Ancient Studies up and running. Compared to the meticulously organized Karen however, they were clueless and almost inept. The temp secretary Mindy Rich had an ongoing love affair with the beautiful image in her mirror, and her alleged assistant Anne Mal was more interested in spending time on the internet than on the office files. The woman never finished any task given to her. Nigel was certain he would have gotten more done if he had been alone.  
  
  
  
The insurance company, despite Nigel's yelling, screaming, begging and eventually pleading at them, stubbornly refused to budge on giving them access to analyze the Ram statue, the powerful demigod who had changed their lives. Nigel, knowing Sydney all too well even in her currently male state of mind, had begun planning their heist. It was the only option left to them! More than once, he had gone to the museum pretending to check on other relics he and Sydney had recovered while he put together the details of the museum security. Several times, he found himself alone in the ancient Egyptian room and wound up pleading with the blasted statue to give him back his true body, but Ram refused to meet his gaze and stared innocently out the window. Nigel remained an all too female woman to the pleasure of the mostly male museum staff!  
  
  
  
Nigel caught a guard staring at his curvaceous figure quite intently. He was used to such masculine attentions after several weeks as Sydney. When the man realized the object of his lust was returning his gaze, he then looked guiltily away. Nigel approached him. He smiled Sydney's best 'I know it all!' smile. Nigel was finally adjusting to the idea that most men desired him now. Perhaps the attentive man could be of some help, though. There was something about Ram he hoped the man could shed some light on.  
  
  
  
"Have you noticed how the statue of Ram changes position from time to time?'  
  
  
  
The man started sweating. "Not me, Professor Fox, ma'am! I am not crazy! Only a crazy person would think a 5,000-year-old statue could move about by itself. They might even believe the statue could laugh! And crazy people can't keep their jobs! I am not a crazy person! I see nothing!"  
  
  
  
Nigel nodded understandingly. This man could prove useful. He ran a slender manicured finger gently across the cheek of the elderly guard with the roving eye. "We'll just keep it our little secret then, shall we?"  
  
  
  
Nigel turned on Sydney's world class sex appeal and soon had the old man eating out of his hand. He led 'Sydney' through all the hidden traps the official tour had neglected to demonstrate, and soon Nigel possessed all the info any potential cat burglar would need about the guards, their routines, and the hot spots in the security to avoid. A woman born couldn't have manipulated the man any better than the recently feminized Nigel did. Nigel remained amazed at the power a pair of well-endowed breasts gave him when it came to males. He would miss them when Ram finally swapped them back! Power and pleasure made a fantastic combination that a man who never experienced becoming the opposite gender would never understand, or enjoy. He hated to admit it, but he was a lucky man to have been given such a gift. The past few weeks had been an unforgettable experience, but Nigel was more than ready to get his body back once Sydney returned from Great Britain.  
  
  
  
In-between scouting out the museum, Nigel delivered lectures to Sydney's students with skill and aplomb. When walking, he now took for granted all the lustful glances from the males. It was almost as common to him now as the sky above. Taking pride in his appearance, Nigel decided to go shopping. If Sydney can buy clothes for my former body, then I can buy outfits for her body, he reasoned. Making a selection from all the outfits he tried on was the difficult part as Nigel felt he looked absolutely drop dead gorgeous in everything he tried on! Sydney's beau called for her on the cell phone several times during the week and it was always a pleasure to talk to the man. Nigel remembered with pleasure the night he had proposed to him and they way they had celebrated afterwards! Too bad the man was out of town. Nigel's body had needs, after all, and the occasional gropes from a student or professor with roving hands did little more than make him want more!  
  
  
  
While Sydney danced with royalty, Nigel had to attend all the department meetings. He had to smile to himself - nobody dared to contradict Sydney Fox or the man occupying her body directly. Everyone was afraid of Sydney's famous temper as well her reputation for always being right about antiquities. The respect made Nigel feel good, really pleased with himself by the end of each day.  
  
  
  
Finally, the time came when the phone rang. His female impersonator was on the other end of the transatlantic telephone line. Nigel put down the excellent Bordeaux wine from Sydney's small but impressive wine cellar he was about to open.  
  
  
  
"Hello. 'Syd'! I'm on my way back to the states! Everything went well. Some of ...my... relatives belong in jail! And that's where two of them are now! It's a long story! But everything is taken care of. Nigel Bailey is now the Earl of Sandwich! Not that it does me much good. Even the Earl of Sandwich can't get a real sandwich on this flight!"  
  
  
  
Nigel laughed Sydney's famous laugh.  
  
  
  
"Thanks for all you did for me in Britain, Syd. I really owe you one."  
  
  
  
"Yes, you do!" Sydney agreed, trying to ignore the guilt of all that had happened between him and Karen. It would break Karen's heart if Nigel didn't want her to be his bride once he got his original body back. If truth be told though, Sydney would miss having Karen as a fiancé. She was a wonderful, caring woman! A beautiful woman! But most of all, Sydney would miss sex with Karen. Sex with a woman was nothing at all like sex as a woman! She had never felt so powerful before! But being a beautiful woman offered many benefits as well, and she was hardly prepared to give up her former identity for a few moments of extreme pleasure, no matter how wonderful it was.  
  
  
  
Barely an hour after her arrival, Sydney, as Nigel expected, would not listen to reasons for caution, and began to finalize plans for stealing - or as they preferred to call it, retrieving the ancient statue of Ram. Sydney knew Nigel could be an inventive assistant, and she knew he was a skilled researcher and scholar, but she was truly surprised by the detailed floor plans and charts of the museum and its guards that Nigel had amassed during her journey to England. Together, they worked like a well oiled engine and developed what they hoped would prove to be a fool-proof plan to remove the Ram statue from the museum and escape without being found out.  
  
  
  
Nigel grumbled more than a little as Sydney, in his body, was hardly equipped to do the tasks their plan required. His male body was simply a touch too clumsy to avoid detection by delicate sensors, as their recent experience in Crete had proven. Therefore, that left it to his delicate feminine hands and finely honed body with its years of martial arts training to do most of the dirty work. Nigel vetoed Sydney's first plan of breaking in through the skyline and being let down fifty feet, then traveling half away across the museum as impossible. Sydney might have been able to pull it off but his fear of heights had traveled along with his mind into the female body he now wore.  
  
  
  
The second plan they came up with began with Nigel calling the director of the museum and making a dinner appointment with him on the pretext of possible future relic hunts the museum might be interested in supporting. The man had been so flattered to receive a visit from the beautiful Professor Fox he didn't even object to Professor Fox's assistant Nigel joining them for dinner. The lonely bachelor savored any opportunity to be around a beautiful woman like Sydney even if it meant putting up with the slightly annoying Nigel Bailey. He had no idea how close to the truth that thought of his was.  
  
  
  
Nigel's job during the dinner was to distract the museum director while Sydney located his keys and made copies of the door and alarm keys! Nigel asked the man's help identifying some minor relics from the office he had been carrying in his purse. The lonely man was so attentive that Nigel felt both sympathy and a bit of disgust towards the man. He sympathized with his inability to find female companionship, but was disgusted by the way the man kept staring at his nylon covered legs and his breasts. But he had a job to do and so Nigel undid another button on his blouse and made sure the man's attentions were focused solely on the body of Sydney Fox and not on the rest of his office. Meanwhile, in relative obscurity, 'Nigel' carefully placed the man's keys in a carefully prepared mold and made exact impressions so they could possess perfect copies of the keys. When Sydney gave the thumbs-up sign that the mission was a success, Nigel rubbed his slim tummy and proclaimed his hunger. Taking the hint, the museum director called up one of the guards and had a lavish meal sent in. They all ate well, and after the meal was over Nigel and Sydney left the director in his office with a happy smile on his face.  
  
  
  
After creating the copies of the keys from the molds Sydney had acquired, the two well fed victims of Mr. Ram's mind exchange waited in a local bar. They had a couple of drinks to top off the meal and loosen them up for the illegal 'retrieval' they were about to attempt. After two A.M., the bar closed and they returned to the museum. At that late hour, alertness was at its lowest ebb, and according to the information Nigel had obtained, the guards would be busy for almost an hour as their late night shifts changed.  
  
  
  
It was time to act!  
  
  
  
With perfectly copied keys, they swiftly gained entrance through the director's private entrance. It was a major flaw in the security which Nigel had uncovered during the prior week, and they used it well! With more of the keys, they swiftly turned off all the alarms but one - the most important alarm - the one protecting the Ram statue from being removed. Turning off that alarm would set off another inside the security office, which only the guards could turn off manually with their keys. Even the director of the museum had no way to turn that level of alarm off. It was a failsafe measure against a greedy insider gaining access to the wealth inside the museum. But no one had counted on the desperation and the skills of Sydney Fox and Nigel Bailey!  
  
  
  
From the balcony, Nigel, using all of Sydney's inborn agility, climbed up a wall and crawled out along the ceiling using suction pads on her knees and on her palms. Only the fact that his current, female body weighed barely over one hundred and ten pounds enabled Nigel to keep from falling to the ground despite the use of the suction pads. Sydney, inside his heavier body was much too heavy, weighing in more than fifty pounds heavier thanks to being stuck inside of Nigel's masculine frame.  
  
  
  
Sweat dripped down the sides of Nigel's beautiful face as he inched along the ceiling. It was all he could do to keep from screaming as he fought back his fear of heights! The slightest error and he would fall fifty feet onto marble floors. It would not be pretty. But Nigel was a trooper, and Sydney's body was a fighter, and he finally hung from the ceiling over the case covering the statue. At the predetermined spot, Nigel drove a mountain climber's bolt into the ceiling. Then he lowered his trim athletic body down slowly until he hovered directly above the case. He felt like Tom Cruise in the movie Mission Impossible, except for the fact that unlike Tom his breasts swayed gently from his chest as he positioned himself above the transparent security case.  
  
  
  
Nigel had to be very cautious, as the slightest swing would put him right over the laser sensors and trigger the alarm they were unable to turn off. However, with a few skillful twists and turns, Sydney, who knew her original body far better than Nigel and now had a unique advantage to see it in action from a distance, directed Nigel swiftly inside the donut hole shaped space unprotected by the lasers! Carefully, he dove down and was face to glass with the security case. Using the director's key, which even the security department lacked as a final precaution, Nigel carefully unlocked the case and lifted it off.  
  
  
  
Fortunately, they had weighed the statue before that moment at the news conference when they had made their ill advised wish to change places with each other. Thus, they knew within a tenth of a gram how much Mr. Ram weighed. A nude statue of Marilyn Monroe Nigel kept in his apartment had proven to weigh the exact same amount as the ancient statue and Nigel had volunteered it for the substitution. Now that he had Sydney's beautiful body at his beck and call, it was somehow easier for him to sacrifice Marilyn for the cause. He had a hunch he might regret it once he was a man again, but he really had no choice.  
  
  
  
Once he made his move, Nigel would have only one second to make the switch before the pressure sensitive alarm sounded! Gripping the nylon rope tightly with Sydney's strong and shapely legs, Nigel deftly replaced the statue of an ancient god with a statue of a modern era goddess! Both he and Sydney caught their breaths and waited for alarms that didn't ring out. Success! All was well. He secured the statue in a pouch around his stomach where Marilyn had been held. Nigel replaced the glass cover and locked the case! He turned on the electric motor by remote control and it gently pull him out of the donut shaped cone. He shut it off as he reached the top of the domed ceiling again.  
  
  
  
Straddling the top once more with his suction-cupped knees and hands, Nigel deftly released the hook from the ceiling, pulled out some putty from a pocket of his black jumper and filled in the small hole to cover it up. Once everything he had used to drop down was secured on his person once more, Nigel crawled along the ceiling, gradually approaching the base of the domed ceiling until he came to the wall once more. He carefully lowered himself and his priceless cargo down to a ledge above a door. Now only ten feet above the floor, Nigel performed an impressive acrobatic flip, landing feet first on a mat Sydney laid down. They appreciated the fact that security hadn't protected the common areas of the floor with pressure alarms.  
  
  
  
Nigel stretched his slender body. It had performed like a champion for him. He knew he would miss the acrobatic, beautiful body he had possessed for the past several weeks after they forced Mr. Ram to reverse his curse and give them back their original bodies.  
  
  
  
"Great work!" Sydney praised. "Now we've got that troublesome little demi-god right where we want him! Let's get out of here!"  
  
  
  
Sydney unstrapped the pouch from her former body and then they moved back out the museum director's door and into their getaway vehicle.  
  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
  
  
In the late edition of the local newspaper the next day, the headline read:  
  
DARING ROBBERY! ANCIENT STATUE OF RAM STOLEN!  
  
  
  
According to the article, museum officials suspected the Mad Hungarians. Professor Fox was called in as a consultant. She vowed a swift return of the artifact she had recently procured for the museum. There was a great picture of the beautiful 'Sydney Fox' smiling with dazzling appeal at the camera. In the background, you could make out a third of Nigel's body - just barely -- if you looked very close.  
  
  
  
Two nights passed until things quieted down and the press had moved on to other matters. Nigel and Sydney met at Syd's house. They took out the Ram statue from the secret hiding place that no one but Nigel and Sydney knew about. Sydney usually kept her crossbow there for safekeeping, but the purloined artifact took precedence. If anyone found it, they could both go to jail! It was the first time both alone with the statue since Nigel had dropped Sydney off at his apartment after the heist. They were too nervous then to try and get Mr. Ram's attention. However, after a night's sleep, and learning that the police and the press had no clue to the thieves identity the day after, the two mind-swapped relic hunters were ready to do whatever it took to get back into the bodies they were born with!  
  
  
  
They held it in their hands. Nigel realized he was not as enthusiastic as Sydney was to become his old self again. It had been great being the famous Sydney Fox most of the time! But there was much to be said for being as man as well! He was prepared to be himself again!  
  
  
  
Meanwhile, Sydney was laughing to herself, thinking, 'No one will ever call me 'Lord' again. Not that being royalty was all that bad, though!' And then there was Karen. Once they switched back, Sydney would never get to sleep with her beautiful secretary again. She realized she had begun to fall in love with the woman... Still, she missed her old body tremendously!  
  
  
  
"OK, here goes nothing!" said Sydney. She and Nigel both said simultaneously, "I wish I was myself again!"  
  
  
  
NOTHING HAPPENED!  
  
  
  
"Change us back please, Mr. Ram!" Nigel begged the little statue.  
  
  
  
"Yes, please change us back into our original bodies, Mr. Ram!" Sydney pleaded.  
  
  
  
A tiny burp erupted from the statue but both Sydney and Nigel remained unchanged.  
  
  
  
"COME ON, YOU LITTLE WEASEL!" Sydney yelled furiously, choking the statue as all her anger from the last few weeks boiled to the surface.  
  
  
  
"Temper, temper," said a mild, slightly male voice with a laugh hidden behind its solemnity. "Remember, you both wished to become the other, not I! I merely made it possible for what you both wanted to become reality. I'm not a Genie, you know. I only grant one wish to a customer!"  
  
  
  
Pause.  
  
  
  
Then Ram went on smoothly as only an all-knowing, immortal demi-god could. "Besides, it would hardly be responsible of me to trade you two back at the present time even if I was so inclined to do so."  
  
  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Sydney, her anger beginning to build up again! She forced herself to reject a masculine impulse to throw the ugly, ancient statue into the fireplace and break it into a million pieces.  
  
  
  
Ram wrote such thoughts off. Sydney was understandably confused, and it was time to enlighten her. "I take it that Nigel has not yet informed you that he is pregnant!"  
  
  
  
"PREGNANT?" they both cried out, astonished! Nigel struggled not to faint! He clutched his stomach as if he expected to find it swelling out like a scene from the movie Alien. To his relief, he still had a twenty-four inch waist! He shuddered as he realized it wouldn't remain so slender for long.  
  
  
  
"Yes, Nigel is quite pregnant, and it is quite against the code of the gods to interrupt a human pregnancy. The bond between a mother and child is unbreakable, even if the mother used to be a man!"  
  
  
  
Sydney looked accusingly at Nigel, who was blushing as red as a tropic sunset. "Nigel how could you? Never mind how, I don't want to know!" She paused. "Who is the father? Not the mailman, I hope!"  
  
  
  
"Well - in a way, it's your fault if I'm... pregnant!" Nigel was shocked to his core to apply such a word to his own body! As Sydney Fox however, he was now quite capable of bearing a baby, he realized with a shock. "Assuming that troublesome little statue is telling us the truth, of course."  
  
  
  
Sydney stared at him, confused. "MY fault? We NEVER did anything that could possibly result in a baby, Nigel! I never, ever, touched you like that!"  
  
  
  
"I know that, Sydney! What I meant is... well, you DID order me to be nice to your boyfriend!"  
  
  
  
"Not that nice!" Sydney said dangerously.  
  
  
  
"Well I had a little too much to drink, I admit, and he was awfully cute for a guy, and I did accept his marriage proposal after all - as you told me to! You slept with him before all this happened to us when you two were dating, and he naturally expected that the woman he proposed to would sleep with him after agreeing to marry him. He was going away on a dangerous mission, you know! And I have to admit I was incredibly curious what sex was like for a woman!"  
  
  
  
"I swear we used protection, though! I can't believe I'm pregnant!"  
  
  
  
They did not see Ram's sly hint of a smile as they were staring at each other arguing. His minor manipulation of the condoms in Sydney's purse had proven most effective!  
  
  
  
"I'd like to kill you Nigel! How could you do such a thing to me? How could you betray my trust like that? I would never do anything like that to you! That was my body you were fooling around with! You had no right!"  
  
  
  
Nigel flushed again with embarrassment.  
  
  
  
Ram's too smooth voice continued. "Now, now, Sydney, you shouldn't be so hard on poor Nigel, he is an expectant mother after all! Besides, you married an equally pregnant Karen in England just before you flew back to the states! The Queen herself was at the ceremony!"  
  
  
  
Nigel's jaw dropped. His mouth opened but no words came out. He was speechless!  
  
  
  
Mr, Ram continued, quite pleased by the reactions of these two mortals. They were truly entertaining! "Even if Nigel hadn't gotten himself knocked up, as some of your kind crudely call such a beautiful state of being, I couldn't change you back! There is such a thing as the sanctity of marriage, after all, and you did promise to remain married to Karen until death do you part!" Ram added, rather sanctimoniously. He believed in religion, of course, he was a demi god after all, and he also believed in marriage! Had he not once had 500 wives when he was a mere mortal himself so many millennia ago?  
  
  
  
Now it was Sydney's turn to flush with embarrassment. Her big secret was out!  
  
  
  
"You married our secretary Karen, and she's pregnant? How could you do that to me? It's my life you are messing around with!" Nigel was furious! Sydney had been angry with him about his sleeping with her fiancé, and all the while she was messing around with his Karen!  
  
  
  
There was an uncomfortable moment between the two of them.  
  
  
  
Then the irony of the situation dawned on them both and they both broke out laughing!  
  
  
  
"You're going to be a mother, Nigel!"  
  
  
  
"Karen and I can attend the same La Maze classes."  
  
  
  
"I can buy you both cute matching maternity outfits!"  
  
  
  
"You do and I'll slug you!" Nigel said, and they continued laughing until Mr. Ram spoke once more.  
  
  
  
Ram told them " I may perhaps be willing to swap you back after the babies are born. Come and see me then."  
  
  
  
Nigel turned a little pea green as the revelations sank in. "I'm going to have a baby!" The expectant mother collapsed into a chair. "A baby! Oh, my God!" He tried to imagine his trim tummy bulging out as a child grew within him, but the thought was too foreign to him. He had only been a woman for a few weeks and now his beautiful new figure would soon be in the past! It wasn't fair! Sydney wasn't going to get morning sickness and get fat!  
  
  
  
Nigel's train of thought was interrupted by Mr. Ram's voice.  
  
  
  
"Now, kindly put me back in my case and return me to that nice museum! I love worshipers and your museum offers so many!"  
  
  
  
"Drop dead, Ram!" said Nigel and Sydney together.  
  
  
  
"Then I take it that you are both very happy with this re-arrangement and prefer it to be permanent? I assume you don't want to be changed back?" Ram said with a sigh. He never understood why so many of those he blessed with new understandings wound up angry with him.  
  
  
  
But Ram had learned how to deal with those who wished him harm over the many millennia of his existence. He seldom chose to speak, but when he did, he expected his requests to be met!  
  
  
  
"I thought our business was finished for now, but if you wish for me to remain in that lonely safe, I could always entertain myself by arranging for Sydney to swap with the museum director, or better yet, would you like to become Karen, Sydney? Perhaps Nigel would prefer triplets…"  
  
  
  
The look on their faces as they imagined such a fate was priceless to Mr. Ram. There were no further objections!  
  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
  
  
The next day the headlines read. "Professor Fox recovers ancient statue of Ram." The copy underneath began, Museum officials were amazed by the swift recovery of the stolen statue by the world famous archeologist and her assistant Lord Knockwurst." (Papers never got anything right when it came to Nigel, it seemed.) "Professor Fox was unharmed, but the thieves escaped while she secured the safety of the statue. The Professor and her assistant will share a large reward from the insurance company."  
  
  
  
There was yet another news report in the paper the following day about Professor Fox, this time among the wedding announcements. "Professor Sydney Fox to wed Mr. Simon Beaumont. Her assistant Lord Sanford is returning to England with his American bride.  
  
  
  
Karen was feeling very pleased. Everything had gone according to her plan, and even better than her plan while they were in England. To her joy, the Queen had suggested that she host a royal wedding for them that weekend. No one said 'no' to the Queen!  
  
  
  
The apparent Sydney Fox had a beautiful wedding a month later. Lord Sandwich flew in for the event with his bride, Karen. Sydney wouldn't miss her own wedding of course, even if she had to watch the proceedings with hundreds of others. It was the social event of the season. The President himself came, but Nigel made sure the only kiss he gave the bride was on his cheek! He still remembered the incident in the airport with distaste! Nigel inside Sydney's body made a beautiful bride. She hadn't started to show yet, of course. Cuddlecums, her husband to be, was very excited by the news that he was going to be a father! So much so, in fact, that he didn't notice his bride's lack of enthusiasm in becoming a mother. To the former Nigel Bailey, pregnancy still remained an alien concept he, or rather she, would have to adjust to, much like any first time mother to be! The newlyweds enjoyed a great honeymoon in Hawaii.  
  
  
  
As to what happened in nine months - well, the mother who used to be Nigel Bailey would rather try to forget the labor pains and enjoy motherhood and his baby girl!  
  
  
  
The former Sydney Fox is proud, and more than a little envious of the woman she once was. There, by the whims of a god, goes Nigel in her place… married to a Syd's  
  
old sweetheart! Shortly after Nigel gave birth, Karen presented Sydney with her own child, a son, after almost twenty-four hours of labor! Syd was glad she didn't have to go through birthing pains! She looked down upon the baby boy with a swelling heart! She was a father!  
  
  
  
A year after they had exchanged identities, Sydney flew back to the states and visited Nigel. She looked at him in awe and a touch of jealousy as he finished breastfeeding his baby girl. After talking about their new lives for a while, they both brought up the subject of asking Mr. Ram to finally give them their bodies back. Sydney and Nigel both agreed on a course of action.  
  
  
  
Later that night, Sydney flew back to Great Britain to her wife, and Nigel drove his car back home from the airport after seeing her off. He couldn't wait to see his family again! Cuddlecums would be waiting, and his baby would be hungry again soon!  
  
  
  
Ram looked kindly on the thong of worships who gazed at him through the glass security case. These modern era mortals were interesting, but they had forgotten most of the rituals of their ancestors. Too bad that sacrificing bulls had gone out of fashion. He thought of Sydney Fox and Nigel Bailey. He had never been fond of Minotaurs, and had hoped for a different outcome from their encounter with the one in Crete. Perhaps he should have waited for their return before exchanging their identities, but he had been unable to resist when they made the same wish at the same time.  
  
  
  
They had provided much entertainment over the past year! He wasn't overly surprised by their decision not to beg him for their old lives, however. Children often made amazing changes of their own on parents without the aid of any godlike powers. Sydney and Nigel would not bother him with any further requests to change them back.  
  
  
  
Ram smiled, making sure he was seen by the funny elderly guard who had been so helpful to Nigel. He had earned Ram's attention. Ram saw a spoiled young woman order the man out of her way and he smiled once again. He could hardly wait to see the looks on their faces…  
  
  
  
Opportunity always presented itself if one waited long enough. And no one had more patience than a god!  
  
  
  
The End! 


End file.
